UC-NRLF 


1.  I  I  lur 

EVOLUTION 
OF  MAN 

ByWILHELA  BOLSCHE 


LIBRA! 

^^"^siBMtf^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 


Junius   Adams 


THE    EVOLUTION 

OF   MAN 


BY 


WILHELM  .BOLSCHE 


Translated  by  ERNEST  UNTERMANN 


SIXTH  THOUSAND 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

1906 


Copyright,  1905 
BY  CHARLES  H.  KERK  &  COMPANY 


.Ijjgggj^  241 
THE   HENNEBERRY  CO.,   PRS.,   CHICAGO. 


0     C 


PREFACE 

Whoever  claims  to  be  an  educated  man,  a  man 
who  thinks,  must  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
outline  of  modern  scientific  research  and  of  the 
theories  concerning  the  descent  of  man.  No 
thought  is  so  essential  and  sublime  as  that  about 
ourselves.  One  may  be  skeptical  as  to  the  value 
of  these  things,  but  before  any  discussion  of 
them  is  possible,  one  must,  above  all,  think. 

There  must  be  no  class  distinction  in  view  of 
these  questions.  Wherever  great  philosophies 
and  movements  in  their  interest  have  appeared 
in  history,  they  have  not  addressed  themselves 
merely  to  the  kings  of  the  spirit,  but  instinctively 
to  the  simple  man  of  the  people,  to  that  place 
where  the  heart  of  the  people  is  beating.  Since 
natural  science  to-day  claims  to  offer  a  new  basis 
for  a  scientific  world  philosophy,  it  must  again 
address  itself  to  the  common  people.  It  may 
seem  that  scientific  methods  of  expression  and 
thought  are  an  obstacle  to  popularization.  If  so, 
we  must  take  so  much  the  more  pains  to  over- 


457 


PREFACE 

come  this  obstacle  and  find  a  popular  interpreta- 
tion for  our  thoughts.  The  present  little  volume 
is  addressed  to  the  widest  circle  of  readers,  even 
to  those  who  are  as  yet  unacquainted  with  a 
goodly  number  of  excellent  but  much  more  volu- 
minous works  concerning  the  same  subject.  This 
little  work  is  reduced  to  such  a  size  that  it  may 
easily  be  perused  in  one  leisure  hour.  Neverthe- 
less I  think  that  the  facts  which  it  presents  will 
furnish  material  for  independent  reflection  in 
serious  hours. 

As  for  its  scientific  basis,  I  have  only  to  men- 
tion the  name  of  Darwin.  Whoever  thinks  him- 
self beyond  this  name  in  our  days  is  specially  in- 
vited to  analyze  his  theories  once  more  by  the 
help  of  this  short  and  comprehensive  sketch.  In 
its  more  intricate  details  my  presentation  of  the 
matter  is  naturally  based  on  certain  ideas  of 
Ernst  Haeckel,  but  I  must  also  give  due  credit  to 
the  great  influence  which  the  more  recent  re- 
searches of  Herman  Klaatsch  of  Heidelberg  have 
exerted  upon  me.  Whenever  I  have  ventured 
beyond  the  line  of  facts,  or  combination  of  facts, 
I  have  done  so  from  my  own  firm  conviction 
that  a  thinking  man  is  not  dragged  down  by  all 
these  relations  with  the  animal  world,  but  is 


PREFACE 

rather  strengthened  and  furthered  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  own  ethical  powers.  He  then 
appears  to  me  so  much  more  triumphant  above 
his  animal  nature,  standing  victoriously  above  the 
dark  foundation  of  his  own  existence.  Man  and 
his  history  reach  back  into  the  primitive  world 
of  animal  monsters,  but  this  animal  nature,  this 
primitive  world,  lies  prostrate  at  his  feet  over- 
come by  himself. 

WlLHELM    BOELSCHE. 

Friedrichshagen, 
New  Year's  Day,  1904. 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   MAN 


A  lovely  picture  extends  before  my  eyes.  A 
virgin  meadow  stretches  down  a  valley  clad  in 
emerald  green.  Innumerable  blossoms  of  dande- 
lions and  blue-bells  rise  from  it  like  golden  and 
violet  flames.  A  gray  granite  wall,  a  witness  of 
primordial  days,  forms  the  background  to  this 
fresh  wave  of  full  life.  Above  it,  like  a  dark 
blue  stage  setting,  rise  the  fir  forest  and  the  op- 
posite mountain  wall.  And  far.  far  beyond  it,  al- 
most merging  into  the  soft  blue  sky  with  a 
slightly  deeper  tint,  appears  the  outline  of  the 
giant  mountains.  Now,  a  snow-white  cloud, 
glistening  in  the  sunlight,  floats  slowly  and  phan- 
tom-like towards  me,  coming  down  from  the 
unknown  distance  beyond,  and  disappearing 
above  me  in  the  glittering  light.  The  bright  glow 
of  the  sun  is  diffused  throughout  it  all,  lending 
charm  to  the  flowery  meadow,  the  granite  and  the 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

mountain  forest — a  great  unity  sunk  in  harmo- 
nious tranquility.  Now,  I  hear  far-off  voices. 
Human  beings  are  passing  by,  shielded  from  my 
sight  by  the  great  stone  blocks.  They  are  strang- 
ers, I  do  not  know  them.  How  much  may  be 
hidden  by  such  distant  voices — good  and  bad! 
What  an  infinite  variety  is  comprised  in  this 
little  word  "man,"  how  much  that  is  noble  and 
sublime — and  how  much  that  is  brutal !  And  yet, 
while  those  feeble  undulations  of  the  air  which 
carry  those  voices  toward  me  are  still  trembling 
in  my  ear,  I  am  thinking  of  the  simple  message 
of  the  gospel,  according  to  which  all  men  without 
distinction  are  my  brothers.  Our  civilization 
has  at  last  risen  to  the  point  of  impressing  us 
with  the  fact  that  this  many-headed  mass  of  fif- 
teen hundred  million  people  on  the  surface  of  this 
globe  are  bound  by  one  common  tie  of  sacred- 
ness  which  is  expressed  in  the  word,  man !  They 
are  all  one  unit,  these  human  beings,  one  great 
family  assembled  on  the  surface  of  this  globe, 
ready  to  share  their  sins,  to  forgive  one  another, 
to  enjoy  their  pleasures  together,  to  go  hand  in 
hand  on  their  way  through  this  great  valley  of 
riddles,  the  universe. 

But  a  clearer  and  sharper  sound,  not  articu- 
lated into  words,  mingles  with  those  indistinct 

10 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

voices.  It  is  the  fine  voice  of  a  little  baby,  this 
monotonous  and  clear  wail  which  sounds  so  help- 
less and  yet  stirs  so  much  compassion! 

We  all  have  grown  up,  we  all  have  developed 
from  such  a  small  baby,  such  a  bud  of  humanity. 
And  my  glance  wanders  once  more  over  the 
green  meadow.  All  those  golden  blossoms  of 
dandelions  and  all  the  blue-bells  have  developed 
from  a  bud.  Every  one  of  those  plants  has 
grown  up  into  the  sunlight  from  some  simple 
germ.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  this  same 
sun  which  neither  of  them  can  dispense  with. 
The  little  rosebud  of  humanity  in  its  cradle  needs 
the  sun  quite  as  much  as  that  brown,  rough 
bud  of  yonder  meadow  flower.  If  the  sun  above 
us  which  is  floating  in  the  ice-cold  solitude  of 
space  nmetfas  ix  millions  miles  a.wav  were  to  be 
extinguished  to-day,  humanity  would  perish  just 
as  surely  as  the  kingdom  of  meadow  flowers. 

And  from  the  depths  of  the  human  soul, 
whence  also  the  lessons  of  the  gospels  have  come, 
still  another  voice  whispers  into  my  inner  ear. 
It  is  that  same  voice  which  was  first  heard  in  the 
wisdom  of  ancient  India,  and  it  said  that  the  tie 
of  common  interest,  of  brotherhood,  is  not  con- 
fined to  man  and  man,  that  it  comprises  all  living 
things  of  this  globe,  all  things  which  grow  up 

11 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

under'  tne  rays  of  the  sun  in  the  silent  grasp  of 
secret,  natural  laws,  and  gradually  develop  to  the 
summit  of  humanity.  It  is  that  other  simple  mes- 
sage which  tells  us :  "Thou  shalt  not  torture  any 
animal  uselessly;  thou  shalt  hot  wantonly  break 
any  flower,  for  they  too  are  distant  relations  in 
the  great  flow  of  life,  they  too  are  still  your 
brothers  in  the  unfathomable  recesses  of  nature. 
Helpless  stands  that  flower,  or  that  glittering  lit- 
tle beetle  before  you,  just  like  a  trembling,  little 
child.  But  the  child  grows  up  into  a  man,  and 
who  knows  what  this  flower  or  that  beetle  may 
become  some  day,  or  what  may  have  become  of 
others  like  them,  millions  of  years  ago! 

It  is  such  sentiments  as  these  which  every 
one  of  us  feels  in  his  or  her  best  moments  which 
seem  to  me  fitting  for  the  discussion  of  such  a 
tremendous  question  as  that  of  the  evolution  of 
man. 

Wherever  the  compassion  of  man  can  find  its 
way,  there  the  blessed  and  divine  longing  for 
understanding  may  also  wend  its  steps  without 
fear  or  shame.  Whoever  has  so  much  love  that 
he  can  feel  it  for  an  animal  may  also  approach 
with  perfectly  clear  conscience  that  other  ques- 
tion, whether  the  blood  relationship  that  freely 
binds  him  to  other  human  beings  does  not  per- 

12 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

haps  extend  still  further,  whether  he  himself 
may  not  have  developed  from  an  animal.  And 
he  may  recognize  with  calm  conviction  that  this 
fact  cannot  have  any  more  significance  morally 
than  that  other  fact  which  is  affirmed  a  thousand 
times  every  day  and  sanctified  by  the  deep  love 
of  every  mother — the  fact  that  even  the  greatest 
man  must  have  first  developed  from  a  primitive, 
human  bud,  from  a  child  which  can  neither 
speak  nor  walk,  which  germinates  in  the  dark 
recesses  of  nature,  just  as  that  blue  bell  out  there 
develops  under  the  hot  rays  of  the  sun.  And  if 
the  individual  develops  in  this  way,  why  should 
not  all  humanity  have  developed  in  this  way, 
once  upon  a  time?  •*•* 

It  was  about  a  million  years  ago.  If  a  man 
could  have  had  the  opportunity  to  wander 
through  our  present  European  continent,  with  a 
rifle  in  his  hands,  he  would  have  seen  in  those 
days  a  very  strange  country.  He  might  have 
imagined  that  he  was  in  the  interior  of  Africa 
as  we  know  it  to-day.  He  would  have  tramped 
for(  weeks  over  immense  prairies  in  Southern 
Europe,  dotted  sporadically  with  a  few  dense 
woods,  and  out  of  the  wilderness  of  this  green  ' 
ocean  of  grass,  he  would  have  started  before 
him  innumerable  herds  of  antelopes,  giraffes  and 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

animals  resembling  wild  horses.  From  his  camp 
near  a  rippling  spring,  he  could  have  watched 
in  the  clear  moonlight,  such  colossal  forms  com- 
ing to  drink  and  to  bathe  as  were  once  seen  by 
the  first  hunters  who^  ventured  into  the  interior 
of  Africa  by  way  of  Cape  Colony.  There,  he 
could  have  seen  elephants  of  various  species,  with 
two  and  four  tusks,  or  even  with  tusks  bent 
downward  like  those  of  the  walrus,  massive 
rhinoceros,  and  ponderous  hippopotami.  Behind 
them  he  could  have  heard  the  roaring  of  lions, 
panthers,  and  giant  wild-cats  armed  with  saber- 
like  teeth.  Wandering  further  north  into  locali- 
ties which  are  now  the  scenes  of  a  highly  ad- 
vanced civilization,  he  would  have  entered  the 
most  impenetrable,  primeval  forest,  similar  to 
that  in  which  Stanley  in  the  heart  of  Africa 
experienced  all  the  sensations  of  daring  conquest 
of  an  absolutely  wild  tropical  country.  Out  of 
the  dense  undergrowth,  splendid  palms  rose  to- 
ward the  sunlight.  Parrots  of  many  colors 
shrieked,  the  features  of  a  large  anthropoid' ape, 
similar  to  our  gorilla,  might  peep  suddenly  out 
of  the  thick  covering  of  foliage,  piercing  the  dar- 
ing intruder  with  sharp  glances.  And  above  it 
all,  there  trembled  the  atmosphere  of  a  hot  cli- 
mate. 

14 
#t-^£*-*-*. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OK  MAN 

Our  wanderer  would  have  been  still  more 
surprised  if  he  could  have  compared  our  present- 
day  maps  with  the  road  traveled  by  him  in  those 
primeval  days.  Where  the  blue  surface  of  the 
Mediterranean  now  extends  so  widely  that  a 
navigator  cannot  see  the  shores  on  either  side, 
he  would  have  advanced  over  dry  ground  from 
horizon  to  horizon  through  prairies  inhabited 
by  giraffes  and  forests  peopled  by  monkeys.  And 
where  to-day  the  red  rose  of  the  Alps  grows 
upon  dizzy  heights  near  the  grim  ice  of  the 
glaciers  on  mountain  passes,  there  he  would  have 
found  nothing  but  wooded  hills  in  which  his 
geologically  trained  eye  might  have  discovered 
traces  of  a  slow  but  irresistible  rise.  And  where 
to-day  the  sun  is  sending  its  glowing  rays  down 
upon  bare  mountain  ranges,  as  in  the  heart  of 
France,  he  could  have  observed  the  horizon  tinted 
blood-red,  a  reflection  of  the  boiling  lava  of  vol- 
canoes. 

A  strange  world  in  an  immeasurably  far  off 
time! 

A  million  years  is  a  tremendous  period  of  time 
for  human  minds  to  grasp.  If  the  history  of 
human  civilization  is  traced  by  written  chronicles, 
it  does  not  take  us  back  beyond  six  thousand 
years.  One  might  fill  entire  libraries  with  events 

15 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

through  which  human  beings  have  passed  merely 
in  a  period  of  one  thousand  years.  Here,  we 
are  supposed  to  place  side  by  side  thousands  of 
thousands  of  years.  What  wonder  then  if  the 
mirror  of  research  transports  us  back  to  those 
primeval  times  into  a  different  Europe,  composed 
of  different  seas,  countries,  mountains  and  cli- 
mates. 

It  is  the  so  called  "Tertiary  Period"  into 
which  we  have  looked. 

Four  great  periods  are  distinguished  by  the 
historians  of  the  earth,  in  speaking  of  the  change 
and  succession  of  animal  and  plant  life  as  it  is 
discovered  in  the  course  of  the  many  million 
years  during  which  it  has  developed.  We  may 
use  the  simple  Latin  numbers  to  designate  these 
periods:  Primus,  the  First,  Secundus,  the  Sec- 
ond, Tertius,  the  Third,  Quartus,  the  Fourth. 
There  is  the  Primary  period,  the  very  first  in 
which  we  discover  traces  of  living  beings  on  our 
earth.  It  was  then  that  the  forests  were  green, 
the  fossil  remains  of  which  we  now  know  as 
coal.  Strange  and  uncouth  newts/crawled  about 
in  their  shade.  The  sea,  the  shores  of  which 
were  covered  by  these  trees,  was  alive  with  long 
forgotten  crustaceans^and  fishes.  Then  followed 
the  Secondary  period,  in  which  the  terrible  giant 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

saunans,  typified  by  Ichthyosaurus,  infested  land 
and  sea.  After  that  we  reach  the  third  great 
period,  the  Tertiary  period,  when  Europe  had 
the  climate  and  the  fauna  of  present  day  Africa, 
such  as  giraffes,  elephants  and  monkeys.  And 
when  this  epoch  came  to  an  end,  the  Quaternary 
period  began,  with  which  our  entire  historical 
tradition  is  identified  and  in  which  we  are  stll 
living  to-day.  We  do  not  meet  any  familiar 
objects  until  we  reach  this  last  period.  The  sur- 
face of  the  earth  then  assumes  the  form  to  which 
we  are  now  accustomed.  All  things  come  closer 
to  us.  The  things  that  lie  beyond  are  strange  to 
us,  like  an  unknown  creation,  like  a  dream  of 
some  other  planet. 

And  yet  man  lived  even  in  that  Tertiary  period. 

No  song,  no  heroic  story,  gives  any  informa- 
tion about  him.  But  where  the  voice  of  tradi- 
tion, the  chronicles  of  conscious  humanity  are 
silent,  there  we  find  other  witnesses  that  speak 
to  us — the  stones.  The  tradition  of  mankind  ex- 
pires within  the  Quaternary  period.  There  is 
an  extreme  moment  when  even  the  most  ancient 
inscriptions  of  the  Chinese,  the  Babylonians,  and 
the  Egyptians  become  mute.  Written  characters 
disappear  and  with  them  the  earliest  direct  voice 
from  the  cradle  of  humanity  about  itself.  But 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

beyond  that  point  we  are  made  aware  of  a  very 
important  event  in  the  development  of  this  earth 
which  took  place  in  this  Quaternary  period,  the 
traces  of  which  are  still  visibly  impressed  in  the 
rocks.  It  is  the  great  ice  age.  For  many  thou- 
sand years,  colossal  masses  of  glacial  ice  were 
piled  on  top  of  the  continents  of  Europe  and 
North  America.  Large  herds  of  mammoth,  a 
species  of  elephant,  covered  with  a  thick  coating 
of  hair  as  a  protection  against  the  cold,  grazed 
along  the  edge  of  these  glaciers,  just  as  in  our 
day  the  musk-ox  and  the  reindeer  are  doing  in 
the  countries  near  the  North  Pole.  Undeniable 
and  plain  traces  of  human  beings  are  still  pre- 
served from  that  period. 

In  the  sand,  which  remained  when  the  glaciers 
flowed  into  the  caves  which  were  formed  by  the 
mighty  ice  waters  boring  their  way  through  the 
lime  rocks,  the  crude  and  simple  stone  tools 
have  been  found  with  which  the  men  of  that 
period  hunted  the  mammoth.  The  walls  of  such 
caves  in  France  are  still  covered  with  colored 
pictures  in  which  the  men  of  that  ice  age  have 
drawn  unmistakable  pictures  of  the  mammoth. 
As  it  happens  we  are  enabled  to  test  the  accuracy 
of  those  pictures,  since  well  preserved  bodies  of 
mammoth  with  skin  and  hair  are  found  in  the 

18 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

ice  of  Siberia.  We  have  also  found  the  skulls 
and  bones  of  those  men,  so  that  we  now  have 
a  fairly  good  idea  of  their  characteristics,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  all  written  and  oral  traditions 
of  the  civilized  nations  now  living  have  com- 
pletely forgotten  their  ancestors  of  the  ice  age. 
Even  the  most  sublime  symbolical  picture  of  the 
evolution  of  civilization,  the  Bible,  does  not  men- 
tion them  anywhere. 

But  those  simple  stone  tools,  especially  knives 
and  arrowheads,  which  give  us  such  reliable 
information  of  man  as  the  contemporary  of  the 
mammoth,  are  occasionally  found  also  in  the 
strata  of  rock  which  were  already  present  when 
the  ice  age  with  its  glaciers  and  mammoths  be- 
gan. We  find  in  them  remains  of  that  most  prim- 
itive human  civilization,  together  with  bones  of 
a  giant  elephant,  who  was  not  only  larger  and 
of  different  form  than  the  mammoth,  but  also 
older — the  so-called  South-elephant  (Elephas 
meridionalis.)  But  this  South-elephant  was  still 
living  in  laurel  groves  and  under  magnolia  blos- 
soms in  France  and  Germany,  instead  of  feeding 
on  reindeer  lichens  on  the  edges  of  the  glaciers. 
With  this  elephant  we  have  come  into  the  middle 
of  the  genuine  Tertiary  period.  This  Tertiary 
period,  the  more  we  follow  it  backwards,  takes 

19 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

us  into  a  warmer  climate  instead  of  a  colder  one. 
In  the  middle  of  this  period  we  meet  with  that 
very  picture  which  I  drew  in  the  beginning.  Eu- 
rope then  had  the  giraffe  plains  and  the  primeval 
forests  of  the  present  day  inhabited  by  anthro- 
poid apes,  and  there  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that 
the  oldest  tools  of  man,  which  we  can  distinguish 
as  such,  lead  us  even  to  the  limit  of  this  very 
hot,  middle  period  of  the  Tertiary  age.  Man  is 
even  then  a  part  of  that  picture !  He  is  himself 
almost  a  million  years  old  on  the  surface  of 
this  globe,  and  had  simple  stone  weapons  and 
other  tools  which  he  used  in  his  fight  with  the 
giant  animals  of  that  time.  In  other  words, 
he  possessed  the  indubitable  beginnings  of  civ- 
ilization. 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  cannot  trace  matters 
up  to  this  point  without  confronting  this  further 
question:  Is  it  not  possible  that  man  may  be 
still  older? 

With  this  venerable  age  of  one  million  years 
he  is  a  part  of  the  wonders  of  the  primitive 
world,  he  drifts  into  the  company  of  still  stranger 
animals  than  the  mammoth,  into  other  climates 
than  those  of  present-day  Europe,  the  Alps  of 
which  were  then  in  the  first  stage  of  formation 
and  the  seas  of  which  had  not  yet  found  their 

30 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

present  level.  So  it  really  would  not  change 
matters  very  much  even  if  we  found  that  we 
must  trace  him  further  back  into  still  more  an- 
cient and  strange  landscapes  of  this  globe.  It 
is  true  that  all  traces  of  civilization  disappear 
at  this  point.  We  do  not  know  of  a  single  piece 
of  flint  stone  in  the  first  half  of  the  Tertiary 
period,  or  even  of  the  saurian  period  following 
it,  which  would  show  the  traces  of  the  human 
hand.  But  long  before  we  reach  this  point,  we 
may  observe  a  gradual  divergence  of  these  flint 
stone  tools.  They  grow  cruder  and  cruder.  Is 
it  too  wild  a  speculation  to  suppose  that  men 
may  have  existed  even  beyond  that  time  who 
may  not  have  possessed  sufficient  civilization  even 
to  fashion  the  simplest  stone  tools  ?  In  that  case, 
we  could  not  expect  to  find  any  stone  tools  as 
witnesses. 

But,  one  might  say,  there  should  at  least  be 
genuine  human  bones  preserved  in  a  fossil  state 
in  the  solid  rocks  together  with  skeletons  of  the 
ichthyosaurians  ?  Still,  this  objection  would  not 
carry  much  weight.  We  know  very  well  that  not 
all  of  the  living  beings  which  once  lived  upon 
this  earth  left  their  fossil  bones  behind.  The 
bones  may  have  been  destroyed,  for  human  bones 
particularly  are  not  very  durable.  Or  they  may 

,./, 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

be  buried  in  certain  places  of  the  earth  which 
we  cannot  investigate  to-day,  because  they  may 
be  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  or  covered  by  the 
perennial  ice  of  polar  regions.  How  often  has 
not  this  earth  been  shaken  through  and  through 
and  turned  inside  out  in  these  long,  long  periods  ? 
Strata,  which  were  once  sediment  at  the  bottom 
of  the  sea  and  which  are  still  full  of  sea  shells, 
are  now  found  on  the  high  summits  of  the  Alps. 
On  the  other  hand,  entire  mountain  ranges, 
gr©und  into  sand,  are  now  found  in  the  flat 
sandstone  of  the  plains,  or  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea.  Many  of  the  remains  of  the  primitive  world 
have  certainly  been  destroyed  in  this  wild  chaos, 
have  been  ground  into  powder,  or  broken  to 
pieces.  We  get  a  vague  conception  of,  this  when 
we  see  that  even  the  gigantic  monsters  of  those 
primitive  days  have  frequently  left  but  one  single 
bone,  a  thigh  bone  or  skull  of  one  single  indi- 
vidual. That  is  to  say,  while  thousands  and 
thousands  of  individuals  of  this  species  lived  once 
upon  a  time,  only  the  scant  remains  of  one  single 
individual  have  come  down  to  our  time. 

Then  too,  there  is  still  another  possibility  which 
is  far  more  interesting.     It  is  very  probable  that 
we  may  not  recognize  the  man  of  those  far  dis- 
tant days,  even  if  some  of  his  bones  were  pre- 
22 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

served.  For  man  himself  might  have  become 
transformed  in  his  structure,  and  his  bones  might 
differ  from  ours.  Might  it  not  be  possible  that 
his  bones  might  look  so  strange  to  us  that 
scientists  might  have  described  them  as  belong- 
ing to  some  other  being,  little  aware  of  the  fact 
that  these  remains  represented  just  the  thing  for 
which  they  were  looking? 

Similar  ideas  have  ever  played  a  role  in  various 
tales  and  legends.  There,  we  read  that  the  men 
of  the  primitive  world  were  gnomes,  or  again 
giants,  Cyclopes  with  one  eye,  or  fauns  with 
goat's  feet,  tails  and  pointed  ears.  When  mam- 
moth bones  were  first  found,  it  was  said  that 
they  were  the  actual  remains  of  such  old  fabulous 
men,  bones  of  the  giants  Gog  and  Magog,  or  of 
St.  Christopher.  Of  course,  this  was  nonsense, 
and  the  supposed  human  bones  were  nothing 
but  honest  mammoth  bones  with  no  relation  to 
primitive  man.  But,  we  of  to-day  have  really 
something  better  than  mere  remains  to  rely  on, 
we  have  reliable  scientific  data  for  the  theory 
that  men  with  essentially  different  characteris- 
tics from  ours  existed  not  so  very  long  ago. 

I  mentioned,  a  while  ago,  that  we  have  remains 
of  skeletons  of  men  who  lived  in  the  ice  age, 
the  age  of  mammoths.  But  these  men  of  the 

23 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


Two  remains  of  skulls  of  palaeo-diluvian  Men,  with  strongly 
protruding  eye-bumps.  Both  cuts  are  side  views.  The  cut  at 
the  top  represents  the  skull-cap  (the  only  part  which  was  pre- 
served) found  in  185C  in  a  cave  of  the  Neander  valley  near 
Dxisseldorf,  Germany.  The  cut  at  the  bottom  represents  a  fairly 
complete  skull,  found  in  1887  in  a  cave  of  Spy,  near  Namur, 
France,  together  with  equally  aged  bones  of  Mammoths, 
Rhinoceros,  and  Cave-Bears. 


24 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

ice  age,  who  are  still  relatively  close  to  us  when 
compared  to  the  more  distant  primitive  periods, 
are  not  so  very  much  behind  in  their  civilization 
when  compared  to  certain  savage  peoples  of  to- 
day. Even  in  our  day,  there  are  certain  tribes, 
for  instance  in  South  America,  who  are  not 
familiar  with  metals,  who  fashion  all  their  tools 
and  weapons  out  of  stone,  horn,  or  wood,  and 
who  therefore  are  actually  living  in  the  "Stone 
Age"  similar  to  those  primitive  mammoth  hunt- 
ers. Nevertheless,  if  one  of  us  had  met  one  of 
these  primtive  ice  age  men,  we  should  have  been 
somewhat  startled  by  the  features  of  that  man. 
For  his  face,  his  size  and  his  limbs  would  have 
appeared  to  us  perceptibly  different  from  ours, 
even  from  those  of  the  savages  of  the  present 
day.  True,  no  one  would  have  doubted  that  this 
was  still  a  "man,"  but  something  strange,  some- 
thing divergent,  would  certainly  have  startled  us 
in  this  type  of  the  "Ice-a^e  man."  We  may  still 
reconstruct  this  man  tolerably  well  from  the  re- 
mains of  his  skeleton. 

It  was  in  1856  that  such  genuine  human  bones, 
with  strangely  divergent  characteristics,  were  dis- 
covered for  the  first  time  and  scientifically  ana- 
lyzed. It  was  in  the  so-called  Neander  Valley 
near  Dusseldorf  (Rhineland).  Some  working 

25 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

men  were  clearing  out  an  old  cave.  They  found 
an  old  and  partly  decayed  skeleton.  A  phy- 
sician, Dr.  Fuhlrott,  happened  along  and  saved  as 
many  of  these  bones  as  he  could  obtain.  In  this 
way  they  reached  a  museum,  and  they  are  now 
on  exhibition  in  the  Provincial  Museum  of  Bonn. 
[The  student  is  especially  surprised  by  the  con^ 
Istruction  of  the  skull  of  this  man,  which  is  very 
flat  in  the  part  directly  above  the  brain,  and 
has  thick  and  unsightly  bumps  right  over  the 
cavities  of  the  eyes.  Even  the  lowest  Australian 
has  no  such  bumps  on  his  forehead  to-day. 

For  a  long  time  the  genuineness  of  this  dis- 
covery was  doubted,  and  no  correct  conclusions 
could  be  formed  because  the  experts  could  not 
agree  on  the  period  to  which  this  Neander  Val- 
ley skull  should  be  assigned.  Some  even  doubted 
whether  this  man  was  really  very  old  and  whether 
he  could  have  been  a  contemporary  of  the  mam- 
moth. Rudolph  Virchow  then  took  part  in  the 
discussion  and  claimed  that  whatever  might  be 
the  antiquity  of  these  bones,  and  granting  that 
they  might  be  genuine  bones  of  a  contemporary 
of  the  mammoth,  they  certainly  did  not  belong  to 
a  normal  man,  but  rather  to  one  who  was  dis- 
eased. The  divergence  from  the  present  human 
type  was  attributed  to  the  effects  of  disease.  It 


REMAINS  OF  PITHECANTHROPUS  ERECTUS, 

the  mysterious  being  found  by  Eugene  Dubois  on  the  island  of 
Java.  The  cut  shows  a  skull-cap,  seen  from  the  side  and  from 
the  top,  with  its  bumps  above  the  eyes;  furthermore  several 
views  of  the  left  thigh-bone,  and  two  molar  teeth.  The  thigh- 
bone has  on  its  inner  side  some  abnormal  formations  due,  proba- 
bly, to  some  wound  which  this  specimen  received  while  alive. 

27 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

was  supposed  that  this  Neander  Valley  man  suf- 
fered from  softening  of  the  bones  when  a  baby, 
from  gout  when  an  old  man,  and  that  at  some 
time  in  his  life  his  skull  had  been  crushed  by  a 
blow  and  healed  imperfectly.  And  in  this  way 
the  bumps  over  the  eyes  and  the  other  strange 
characteristics  were  supposed  to  have  been  pro- 
duced. But  this  very  daring  assumption,  which 
looked  far-fetched  when  examined  in  detail,  was 
refuted  when  Professor  Fraipont,  in  1887,  dis- 
covered two  human  skeletons  in  another  cave 
near  Namur  (France),  the  so-called  cave  of  Spy. 
These  skeletons  had  skulls  with  the  same  strange 
bumps  on  them.  One  could  not  easily  assume 
that  all  these  individuals  had  endured  the  same 
improbable  sufferings.  Some  time  after  that,  a 
whole  mass  of  remains  of  such  bones,  belonging 
to  not  less  than  ten  individuals  of  different  ages, 
were  found  near  Krapina  in  Austria.  They  evi- 
dently represented  the  remains  of  a  prehistoric 
cannibal  feast,  and  the  poor  victims  who  had 
been  roasted  on  that  occasion  had  all  of  them 
the  same  structure  of  skull  as  that  of  the  Neander 
Valley  man.  And,  finally  Schwalbe  and  Klaatsch 
have  demonstrated  scientifically  that  the  Neander 
Valley  bones  were  not  at  all  diseased. 

It  is  quite  certain,  then,  that  a  type  of  man 

28 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

with  such  skulls  has  once  existed,  and  the  dis- 
coveries at  Spy  and  Krapina  have  shown  at  the 
same  time  to  what  period  that  man  belonged. 
They  were  found  together  with  the  bones  of  the 
mammoth  and  cave  bear  of  exactly  the  same  age. 
They  were  therefore  remains  of  "Ice-age"  men, 
and  these  ice-age  men  still  showed  this  strange 
divergence  from  the  present  living  type  of 
"man." 

Now,  let  us  imagine  that  these  variations  con- 
tinued far  into  the  more  primitive  period.  The 
traces  of  civilization,  as  we  have  seen,  finally 
disappear  altogether.  Man  himself,  if  present 
in  those  very  primitive  periods,  would  not  have 
been  advanced  far  enough  to  fashion  the  crudest 
weapons  out  of  flint  stone.  And  we  may  log- 
ically draw  conclusions  from  this  lack  of  ability 
as  to  his  physical  constitution.  The  man  of  the 
Ice-age  was  able  to  fashion  weapons  from  flint- 
stones,  and  yet  he  was  far  behind  us  in  the  struc- 
ture of  his  skull.  How  far  behind,  then,  in  the 
structure  of  his  skull,  would  be  a  man  without 
knowledge  of  flint  stone  tools? 

The  line  of  research  here  absolutely  dissolves 
into  nothing.  Man  diverges  more  and  more  from 
the  present  type  of  human  beings.  He  finally 
varies  to  an  extent  which  makes  him  absolutely 

29 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

indistinguishable  and  hides  "Man"  in  beings 
which  are  not  at  all  like  him. 

We  must  recall  to  mind  the  millions  of  years 
of  the  primitive  world,  the  infinite  succession  of 
time,  and  think  on  and  on  along  this  line  of 
natural  development,  just  as  we  would  in  the 
case  of  a  star  which,  once  started  on  a  defintie 
course  from  a  certain  point,  continues  to  move 
and  move  incessantly  in  a  certain  fixed  direc- 
tion. 

But  now  that  we  have  gone  so  far,  we  feel 
a  pardonable  curiosity  and  a  certain  daring. 
Would  it  not  be  possible  for  our  penetration, 
once  we  have  conceived  of  these  possibilities,  to 
forge  ahead  still  farther  into  the  mystery  of 
things,  get  at  the  facts  of  all  these  "possibilities," 
and  ask  what  disguise  man  might  have  adopted  ? 
What  may  be  those  strange  primitive  beings,  the 
fossil  remains  of  which  we  might  perhaps  find 
and  in  which  he  may  be  most  likely  hidden  ? 

We  have  at  least  a  starting  point.  We  per- 
ceive, so  to  say,  the  mathematical  point  where 
the  course  begins  to  deviate,  that  is  to  say,  we 
may  start  from  these  grotesque  skulls  of  the  ice- 
age  with  their  crude  bumps  above  the  eyes.  May 
we  not  speculate  a  little  further  as  to  the  next 
physical  transformation,  and  so  forth? 

30 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

It  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  we  meet  with 
something  which  has  the  great  advantage  of  not 
being  merely  a  logical  assumption,  but  rather  a 
tangible  scientific  fact. 

The  beautiful  island  of  Java  in  the  tropics  has 
long  been  known  on  account  of  its  violent  vol- 
canic eruptions.  As  late  as  the  Tertiary  period 
there  was  an  eruption  of  a  certain  volcano  which 
buried  an  entire  section  of  land  with  loose  masses 
of  ashes  in  the  same  way  in  which  Mt.  Vesuvius 
buried  the  city  of  Pompeii  in  historical  times. 
On  this  occasion  a  multitude  of  living  beings  were 
buried.  Their  bones  remained  in  that  volcanic 
mass  and  were  later  on  carried  to  a  certain  place 
by  waters  washing  their  way  through  this  mass. 
The  name  of  this  place  to-day  is  Trinil,  and  the 
old  mass  of  volcanic  ashes  is  now  a  part  of  the 
bed  of  the  Bengavan  river.  In  1891  a  Dutch 
physician,  Eugen  Dubois,  made  excavations  in 
the  banks  of  this  river,  and  incidentally  he  dis- 
covered masses  of  old  bones,  mostly  the  bones 
of  large  mammals  of  the  Tertiary  period,  such 
as  elephants  and  hippopotami  which  do  not  live 
in  Java  in  our  day.  But  among  those  bones 
Dubois  found  also  a  thigh  bone  and  skull  cap  and 
a  pair  of  molar  teeth  of  a  peculiar  creature  which 
had  evidently  lived  in  those  primitive  days  with 

31 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

those  animals  at  the  time  wherv  the  eruption  of 
that  volcano  occurred. 

This  creature  must  have  had  a  strange  likeness 
to  human  beings.  It  had  almost  the  height  of 
a  man.  Its  upper  thigh  indicates  that  it  had 
the  habit  of  walking  upright.  Indeed,  it  was  so 
manlike  that  a  number  of  authorities  in  anatomy, 
for  instance  Rudolph  Virchow,  declared  without 
hesitation  that  it  was  a  genuine  human  bone. 
But  matters  were  different  with  the  skull.  Flat, 
without  a  forehead,  and  with  bumps  above  his 
eyes,  this  skull  seemed  in  its  fundamental  plan  to 
be  an  extreme  exaggeration  of  the  Neander  Val- 
ley skull.  But  this  exaggeration  went  so  far 
that  the  human  likeness  receded  against  a  new 
likeness.  This  Trinil  skull  resembled  strikingly 
— a  monkey  skull.  And  it  was  -even  possible  to 
name  the  definite  species  of  monkey  which  it 
resembled  most  nearly,  a  monkey  living  to  this 
day  in  Southern  Asia,  the  so-called  gibbon.  The 
gibbon  is  the  nearest  relative  of  the  ourang- 
outang,  the  gorilla  and  the  chimpanzee.  The 
present  living  species  are  all  of  them  much  smal- 
ler than  this  strange  creature  of  Trinil  was.  But 
that  old  skull  was,  in  many  respects,  so  like  that 
of  the  gibbon  that  quite  a  number  of  grave  ex- 
perts declared  that  it  belonged  to  an  extinct 
species  of  gibbon  which  had  the  size  of  a  man. 

32 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

Still,  a  few  others  did  not  agree  with  this 
idea.  The  cavity  of  the  skull,  so  far  as  it  was 
preserved,  was  filled  with  gypsum  in  order  to 
find  out  how  much  space  it  contained  for  a  brain. 
The  figure  ascertained  by  this  means  was  ap- 
proximately half-way  between  a  gorilla  and  the 
lowest  Australian  aborigine.  That  is  to  say,  its 
brain  capacity  exceeded  by  far  that  of  a  gibbon 
without  however  coming  anywhere  near  that  of 
present-day  man  or  even  the  ice-age  man.  What 
sort  of  a  creature  could  this  be?  The  scientists 
disagreed.  "A  very  gibbon-like  man,"  said  some 
of  them.  "A  very  man-like  gibbon,"  said  the 
others.  The  discoverer  Dubois  took  a  middle 
course ;  he  baptized  this  creature  with  the  double 
name  of  Pithej^njftror^^ 

This  disagreement  of  the  scientists  is  very  in- 
structive in  our  research.  We  learn,  as  an  actual 
fact,  that  in  the  Tertiary  period  there  still  existed 
on  this  globe  certain  creatures  which  stood  about 
half-way  between  a  man  and  a  gibbon.  Their 
skull  exaggerated  those  characteristics,  by  which 
the  ice-age  man  was  distinguished  from  present- 
day  man,  to  such  an  extent  that  this  creature  ap- 
proached a  new  station  which  we  have  long 
known  by  the  name  of.  monkeys.  In  this  way 
we  are  given  a  definite  goal  indicating  the  first 

38 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

disguise  in  which  we  may  look  for  man  further 
back  and  discover  him,  so  to  say,  by  evidences 
which  reveal  his  presence  beyond  that  limit  where 
he  began  to  deviate  entirely  from  the  present 
type  of.  man. 

Is  it  perhaps  possible  that  at  a  certain  histor- 
ical stage  man  simply  merges  in  the  monkey? 
Here  another  very  old  and  venerable  line  of 
reasoning,  long  used  even  in  the  most  exact  re- 
search of  nature,  comes  to  our  aid. 

It  was  in  1735  that  Linnaeus,  a  great^scientist, 
performed  a  monumental  work.  He  then  gave 
us  the  first  comprehensive  system  of  nature's 
forms.  He  arranged  these  forms  in  three  great 
kingdoms,  minerals,  plants,  animals.  And  within 
these  kingdoms  he  arranged  the  various  forms 
in  systematic  succession.  In  this  way,  he  fur- 
nished us  with  a  system  of  plants,  and  of  ani- 
mals, which,  in  spite  of  its  defects,  gave  us  the 
first  foundation  for  a  comparative  view  and  log- 
ical sequence  by  which  we  could  hope  to  discover 
the  natural  connections  of  these  forms  in  their 
main  outlines. 

In  performing  this  necessary  work  of  genius, 
Linnaeus  naturally  had  to  solve  the  question: 
Where  am  I  to  place  man?  He  did  not  hesitate 
for  one  moment.  He  placed  man  in  the  animal 

34 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

kingdom  on  account  of  his  physical  structure, 
which  showed  that  he  belonged  to  the  mammals/ 
and  more  definitely  in  the  group  of  monkeys. 
Indeed,  if  we  wish  to  build  up  any  system  even 
in  our  day,  that  is  the  only  logical  conclusion 
at  which  we  can  arrive.  Man  is  not  a  simple 
mineral,  he  is  a  living  being.  Unless  he  is  fed, 
he  dies;  that  is  to  say,  his  form  of  existence  is 
that  of  living  beings  who  are  compelled  on  pain 
of  death  to  assimilate  food.  If  we  pinch  his  arm, 
he  cries  out ;  in  other  words,  he  feels,  and  he  has 
that  peculiar  faculty  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  associate  with  the  word  "life,"  the  faculty  of 
suj)jjejrtiyjr  feeling.  Furthermore  his  food  is  of 
a  definite  kind.  He  cannot  feed  on  pure  mineral 
substances,  he  requires  either  vegetable  or  animal 
matter,  he  needs  bread  instead  of  stones,  and  of 
the  elements  of  the  air  he  can  utilize  only  oxygen. 
This  classes  him  with  the  other  members  of  the 
animal  kingdom  in  distinction  from  plants  which 
feed  on  the  soil. 

Again,  in  the  animal  kingdom  there  are  two 
main  groups.  It  is  true  that  Linnaeus  himself 
was  not  familiar  with  this  distinction,  but  we 
have  learned  it  since  then.  The  individual  body 
of  the  animal  in  one  of  these  groups  consists 
of  only  one  so-called  cell.  It  is  one  solitary  little 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

lump    of    animated    substance.     The    individual 
body  in  the  other  gjroup  of  animals  is  composed 
of  many  such  cells,  which  form  a  sort  of  co- 
operative association  with  division  of  labor.  Well 
then,  the  body  of  man  is  built  up  with  billions 
of  such   cells   in   the   most   wonderful   manner. 
It  consists  of  living  building  material,  the  cells, 
which  make  up  its  muscles,  its  blood,  its  skin  and 
even  its  bones.   In  other  words,  man  belongs  to 
the  group  of  animals  that  contain  many  cells, 
(lie  does  not  belong  to  the  uni-cellular  low  arch- 
Ityjges/  he    is    not   a    microscopically    small    in- 
ifusorium.ft 

This  higher  group  of  animals  is  again  di- 
vided into  a  number  of  groups,  among  which 
we  must  make  our  choice.  There  are  the  sponges, 
the  polypi,  the  jelly-fish,  the  worms,  the  star- 
fish, the  echinoderms,  the  crustaceans,  the  in- 
sects, the  snails,  the  shells,  and,  finally,  ajjrpup 
which  is  distinguished  by  a  spinal  cord  located 
above  the  digestive  tract  and  protected  by  a  more 
or  less  solid  structure  which  serves  at  the  same 
time  for  the  support  of  the  body,  a  backbone. 
We  call  this  last  group  the  vertebrates.  No  other 
group  has  this  characteristic  structure,  and  it  is 
plain,  at  the  first  glance,  that  man  can  belong- 
only  to  this  group,  because  he  has  a  spinal  cord 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


AN   OLD   ORANG-OUTANG. 
His  face  is  disfigured  by  peculiar  excrescences  on  both  cheeks. 


37 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

and  a  backbone.  Within  this  group  of  verte-X 
ibrates  we  distinguish  the  fish,  which  breathe 
]  in  the  water  with  gills  instead  of  lungs;  man 
i  breathes  through  lungs,  therefore  he  is  not 
|  a  fish.  Then  follow  the  amphibians,  that  is  to 
I  say,  the  newts  and  frogs  that  breathe  alternately 

•  through  gills  and  lungs.     A  frog,  for  instance, 
i  breathes  through  gills,  when  a  tadpole,  and  ac- 
quires his   lungs  later  on.     Human  beings   do 

t  not  have  this  double  method  of  breathing.  Fur- 
I  thermore,  the  reptiles,  that  is  to  say,  lizards, 
i  crocodiles,  turtles  and  related  animals  have  blood 

which  changes  its  temperature   from  warm  to 

cold  and  vice  versa.  Their  blood  is  cold  when 
'  the  air  which  they  breathe  is  cold,  but  it  is  warm 
j  when  the  sun  shines  upon  them.  These  animals 
,  do  not  yet  possess  their  own  heating  apparatus 

within  them.  The  human  body  heats  itself,  it  is 
!  always  warm,  hence  man  is  not  a  reptile.  The 
I  two  last  groups  of  vertebrates  are  always  warm. 

These   groups   consist   of  birds   and   mammals. 

•  Since  we  have  to  choose  between  these  two,  we 
.  must  investigate  further.     No  bird  suckles  its 
'  young,  but  the  human  mother  does  that,  and  all 
i  mammals  do,  therefore  we  belong  on  the  side 
'  of  the  mammals.    Now  these  mammals  are  again 
I  divided  into  two  great  sections.     Those  of  one 

38 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

1  section  lay  eggs,  the  Australian  duckbills.    The 

!  mammals  of  the  other  section  have  done  away 
with  that;  the  child  when  born  is  far  more  ma- 
ture. Every  human  mother  testifies  to  the  fact 

!<  that  human  beings  are  not  duckbills,  but  belong 
to  a  higher  class.  And  now  we  come  to  a  final 
choice.  We  look  at  the  hands  and  teeth  of 
man.  Man  is  not  a  whale,  the  hands  of  which 
have  turned  into  fins.  He  is  not  a  carnivorous 
animal  which  has  one-sidedly  developed  its  eye- 
teeth  and  incisors.  He  is  not  an  animal  with 
hoofs  which  has  laid  special  stress  upon  its  molar 

I  teeth.  He  is  not  a  rodent,  the  best  trumps  of 
which  are  the  incisors ;  he  is  not  a  sloth,  the  teeth 

j  of  which  have  entirely  degenerated,  nor  is  he  a 
bat,  the  hands  of  which  are  made  into  wings. 
There  is  only  one  single  group  of  mammals,  the 
teeth  and  hands  of  which  resemble  those  of  man, 

Kand  that  group  is  composed  of  monkeys.  X 

Mark  well:  when  Linnaeus  placed  man  side 
by  side  with  the  monkeys  in  his  system,  he  was 
not  thinking  of  anything  else  but  just  an  orderly 
arrangement,  a  systematic  grouping  of  animals 
at  a  greater  or  smaller  distance,  just  as  a  boy 
will  stick  his  beetles  into  his  collection,  some 
closer,  others  farther  apart.  But  since  the  days 
of  Linnaeus  a  good  many  deep  thinkers  and  clear 

39 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

heads  have  asked  the  question  whether  this  "sys- 
tem" might  not  have  a  deeper  meaning  and  re- 
lation to  nature? 

Now,  when  we  remember  that  ye  arrived  at  a 
certain  station  in  our  research  which  we  named 
monkey-man,  the  probability  of  a  deeper  mean- 
ing of  that  system  grows  apace.  We  were  look- 
ing for  some  primitive  disguise  by  which  man 
might  have  concealed  his  identity  far  back  in  the 
days  of  the  primitive  world,  and  we  must  cer- 
tainly say,  when  we  think  of  this  system,  that 
of  all  the  creatures  of  this  globe,  none  is  better 
fitted  for  such  a  disguise  than  is  the  monkey,  that 
is  to  say,  that  animal  which  in  spite  of  all  the 
differences  of  its  bony  structure  is  still  far  more 
like  us  than  all  the  other  living  beings  of  the 
earth  together. 

Remember  also  that  we  were  not  speaking 
of  monkeys  in  a  general  way;  but  indicated  a 
certain  species,  the  gibbon.  Systematic  zoology 
very  early  accomplished  the  separation  of  some 
species  of  monkeys  from  others,  the  so-called 
anthropoid  apes.  This  word  indicates  that  these 
apes  are  still  closer  to  man  in  the  system  than 
any  others.  No  other  group  in  the  system  is  so 
close  to  us.  We  now  distinguish  four  species  of 
these  anth^grpoid  apes.  Two  of  them  are  living 
in  Africa,  tjjie  gorilla  and  the  i  chimpanzee,  and 

40 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

two  in  Asia,  the  orang-outangand  the  gibbon, 
These  four  apes  strangely  resemble  human  be- 
ings, even  externally.  The  layman  is  specially 
astonished  to  notice  that  they,  like  man,  have 
not  jin  externally  visible  JaU.  But  scientists 
know  that  this  occurs  occasionally  even  among 
lower  monkeys  and  so  it  is  not  considered  a  very 
convincing  mark.  But  there  is  a  very  wonderful 
relation  which  should  convince  the  most  inveter- 
ate skeptic,  and  that  is  the  following. 

Whoever  has  looked  at  a  drop  of  blood 
through  a  very  strong  microscope  knows  that 
this;  jpeculiar  fluid  is  a  mixture  of  two  things, 
first,  the  so-called  serum,  and  then  the  blood 
corpuscles  floating  round  in  it.  Now  when  we 
compare  the  drops  of  blood  of  various  animal 
species,  we  find  that  the  red  blood  corpuscles 
have  many  different  forms.  Some  of  them  are 
long,  some  are  round,  some  are  large  and  some 
small ;  in  brief  they  are  different  in  fish,  or  newt, 
or  bird,  or  mammal.  This  is  no  ground  for  sur- 
prise, for  all  these  animals  are  very  different 
in  many  other  ways. 

The  peculiar  significance  of  this  difference  is 
that  the  attempt  to  inoculate  an  animal  of  one 
group  with  the  living  blood  of  another  group 
always  ends  fatally.  It  is  just  as  if  these  two 
kinds  of  blood  carried  on  a  war  with  one  an- 

41 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

other.  The  serum  of  one  group  destroys  the 
blood  corpuscles  of  another  group.  If  an  animal 
is  inoculated  with  the  blood  of  another  group, 
it  quickly  feels  the  fatal  effects  of  this  struggle 
in  its  veins.  It  falls  into  convulsions  and  finally 
collapses  entirely,  just  as  a  conflagration  con- 
sumes a  city  in  whose  streets  a  violent  civil  war 
is  raging.  And  this  happens  often  in  the  case 
of  animals  which  are  relatively  close  to  one 
another,  for  instance,  many  mammals.  The 
blood  of  a  cat  kills  a  rabbit  which  is  inoculated 
with  it,  and  vice  versa.  But  finally  there  is  a  cer- 
tain limit.  The  blood  of  a  cat  naturally  does  not 
kill  another  cat.  Indeed,  peace  is  guaranteed 
often  among  more  distant  relatives.  Closely  re- 
lated animals  may  mix  their  blood  without  dan- 
ger. A  dog  is  so  close  to  a  wolf  that  the  living 
blood  of  the  one  may  mix  with  that  of  the  other 
without  harm.  It  is  the  same  with  a  horse  and 
a  donkey.  Now  a  short  time  ago  a  certain  scien- 
tist, Friedenthal  in  Berlin,  mixed  human  blood 
and  monkey  blood.  At  first  one  blood  acted  as 
a  poison  for  the  other;  that  is  to  say,  as  long 
as  the  objects  of  the  experiment  were  man  and 
a  lower  monkey.  But  when  human  blood  came 
o  the  blood  of  the  chimpanzee,  peace  was  sud- 
denly established.  The  boundary  of  antagonisms 
had  been  crossed.  The  blood  of  man  and  that  of 
42 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

the  anthropoid  ape  were  so  nearly  akin  that  they 
agreed  without  difficultly.  How  could  this  be? 
Here  it  was  not  a  question  of  comparing  bone 
with  bone.  An  answer  came  directly  from  the 
living.  The  secret  of  life,  the  most  minute 
chemistry  of  the  blood,  testified  to  the  most  intir 
mate  relationship,  a  consanguinity  in  the  most 
Xdaring  sense  of  the  word.  -* 

With  this  fact  we  have  made  another  step 
ahead.  The  probability  grows  that  man  may 
have  been  concealed  once  upon  a  time  in  one  of 
these  creatures  which  we  see  represented  by  the 
anthropoid  apes  of  to-day.  Indeed  ,the  experi- 
ment with  blood  makes  it  almost  evident  that 
all  four  anthropoid  apes  now  living  are  directly 
connected  with  this  mysterious  primeval  fact. 
The  question  is  only,  what  is  this  relation? 

We  first  of  all  feel  tempted  to  ask  whether 
these  anthropoid  apes  themselves  might  not  rep- 
resent that  primitive  stage  for  which  we  are 
looking.  Are  not  these  apes  veritable  primitive 
men  that  have  not  yet  been  transformed  into 
genuine  men  to  this  day? 

One  thinks  involuntarily  of  the  ludicrous  tales 
of  the  negroes  who  say  that  the  gorilla  and 
the  chimpanzee  are  really  men,  only  they  are  too 
lazy  to  work,  and  for  this  reason  pretend  that 

43 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

they  are  monkeys.  And  perhaps  there  is  suffi- 
cient truth  in  this  theory  to  justify  the  belief 
that  these  apes  actually  represent  a  type  of  primi- 
tive man  who  was  arrested  in  his  development 
against  his  will,  and  who  went  so  far  in  his 
conservatism  that  he  still  illustrates  the  "mon- 
key stage"  of  man. 

Again  one  might  ask  at  this  point,  how  it  is 
that  a  few  of  our  crude  and  monkey-like  great- 
grandfathers are  still  living  in  the  form  of  iso- 
lated men  of  the  woods,  as  a  fixed  primitive 
type,  at  a  time  when  present-day  genuine  man 
has  long  arrived  at  his  perfect  form.  But  we 
meet  with  the  same  phenomenon  within  genuine 
humanity  itself.  Why  does  the  native  Australian 
with  his  Stone  Age  civilization  still  live  in  the 
bush,  while  over  here  civilized  man  has  already 
risen  to  the  full  height  of  his  evolution?  And 
we  have  an  illustration  still  closer  at  hand.  In 
the  plains  where  the  modern  metropolis  steams 
and  roars,  progress  walks  with  seven-leagued 
boots,  while  yonder  in  the  remote  mountain  vil- 
lage ancient  customs  and  institutions  are  still  in 
full  bloom.  So,  this  would  not  be  a  very  perti- 
nent objection. 

However,  let  us  take  a  closer  look  at  the  anth- 
ronoui  «H^es.  We  have  four  species."  These  four 

44 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

species  differ  considerably  from  one  another, 
some  of  them  show  even  extreme  differences. 
Do  they  possibly  represent  four  different  primi- 
tive stages  of  man?  But  every  attempt  to  re- 
construct them  from  a  continuously  ascending 
line  towards  man  is  a  complete  failure.  It  is 
true  that  each  species  has  a  number  of  its  own 
peculiar  resemblances  to  man.  But,  it  rather 
seems  that  these  resemblances  are  distributed 
among  them  in  a  rather  indiscriminate  way,  so 
that  they  all  supplement  one  another  in  a  funda- 
mental outline  of  man,  but  nevertheless  do  not 
form  an  ascending  chain  of  evidence. 

We  now  remember  that  strange  creature  of 
Trinil,  and  our  attention  turns  especially  to  the 
gibbon.  Is  it  possible  that  he  could  be  a  genuine 
archetype,  and  that  the  orang-outang,  the 
chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla  could  be  merely  un- 
progressive  branches?  One  thing  cannot  be  de- 
nied: this  gibbon  possesses  indeed  very  strange 
and  portentous  characteristics.  It  seems  that 
this  ape  actually  brings  us  closer  to  the  secret  of 
our  descent.  He  is  not  a  bestial  gorilla,  but  a 
much  more  gentle  and  soulful  creature.  ^Te  can. 
singthe^  music  of  the  gc^le. — a  very  strange  case 
in  a  mammal,  which  involuntarily  reminds  us 
that  it  is  precisely  in  man  that  language  and  song 

45 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


A  GIBBON. 

The  anthropoid  apes  of  the  gibbon  group  are  living  in  southern 
Asia  and  in  the  Sunda  Islands.  They  have  extremely  long 
arms,  which  are  much  longer  than  their  legs.  The  gibbon  has 
very  significant  relations  with  the  human  line  of  descent. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

have  developed.  Furthermore,  if  the  gibbon 
descends  from  a  tree  to  the  ground  which,  by 
the  way,  he  does  not  like  to  do,  he  walks  habitu- 
ally on  two  legs  and  balances  himself  at  the 
same  time  by  stretching  out  his  arms  sideways, 
or  folding  them  above  his  head,  and  these  arms 
of  the  present-day  gibbon  are  again  a  new  clue 
in  our  research.  Compared  to  the  trunk  and  the 
legs  these  arms  are  excessively  long.  Any  com- 
parison with  man  seems  impossible  in  view  of 
these  arms.  No  other  mammal  has  arms  of  such 
length.  However,  if  we  study  the  habits  of  gib- 
bon life,  we  easily  recognize  their  purpose.  The 
gibbon  is  the  cleverest  climber  among  the  anthro- 
poid apes.  He  is  an  unexcelled  acrobat,  thanks 
to  these  arms.  They  represent  an  extreme  but 
very  adequate  adaptation  to  his  special  needs. 
But  when  it  comes  to  comparing  him  with  mod- 
ern man,  these  arms  of  the  gibbon  certainly 
point  away  from  us.  The  question  arises 
whether  the  primitive  man  for  whom  we  are 
looking  could  ever  have  had  such  spiderlike  arms. 
The  gorilla,  chimpanzee  and  ourang-outang  also 
have  pretty  long  arms,  but  they  are  not  nearly 
so  long,  and  in  that  respect  these  apes  seem  to 
be  much  closer  to  man.  Even  a  majority  of  the 
lower  apes,  such  as  Macacus,  and  even  the  ba- 

47 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

boons,  have  a  much  closer  resemblance  to  man 
in  this  one  point. 

There  seems  to  be  only  one  way  out  of  these 
strange  contradictions.  We  must  conclude  that 
the  living  anthropoid  apes  are  closely  related  to 
the  archetype  of  man  for  which  we  are  looking, 
but  they  do  not  represent  its  thorough-bred  type. 
f  Each  one  of  them  has  developed  along  his  own 
I  line  from  this  thorough-bred  type  simultaneously 
^with  man  as  we  know  him  to-day.  They  did  not 
change  very  much,  but  still  they  went  far  enough 
to  acquire  each  his  own  peculiarities.  All  of 
them  retain  strong  resemblances  to  the  archetype, 
but  one  has  preserved  more  of  some  characteris- 
tics and  lost  others,  while  the  reverse  is  true  of 
another  species.  Very  likely  the  gibbon  still  re- 
sembles that  archetype  most  closely,  but  even  he 
has  later  acquired  those  enormous  arms. 

It  is  highly  interesting  to  know  that  we  may 
mention  a  direct  reason  for  our  general  assump- 
tion of  probability,  so  that  it  becomes  almost  a 
certainty.  Among  living  beings  there  is  a  very 
curious  law,  or  at  least  a  near  approach  to  one. 
Young  animals  very  frequently  resemble  the 
ancestors  of  their  whole  race  more  nearly  than 
the  adult  animals.  A  frog  in  the  tadpole  stage 
still  resembles  a  fish  which  breathes  in  the  water 

48 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

through  gills.  A  great  number  of  higher  animals 
assume  again  in  the  egg,  or  in  the  mother's 
womb,  certain  forms  which  we  meet  on  a  much 
lower  and  more  ancient  plane.  A  bird  in  the  egg 
shows  for  a  while  a  great  mass  of  vertebrae,  in 
its  tail  which  once  characterized  the  extinct  bird- 
lizard  ( Archaopteryx) ,  a  transition  form  be- 
tween lizard  and  bird,  existing  millions  of  years 
ago.  *  Haeckel  has  called  this  peculiar  fact,  which  x 
recurs  in  innumerable  cases  and  truly  indicates 
a  general  and  lawful  connection,  the  "biogenetic 
principle,"  and  this  term  has  become  fairly  popu-^ 
lar  to-day.  x 

Well,  then,  the  very  first  observers  noticed 
that  the  gorilla,  the  chimpanzee,  the  orang- 
outang, resemble  man  more  in  proportion  as 
they  are  younger.  The  giant  gorilla,  which  is 
the  most  ferocious  and  bestial  of  all  anthropoid 
apes  in  old  age,  resembles  in  its  baby  stage  the 
human  being  so  closely  that  even  the  layman 
who  has  never  thought  about  these  things  is 
surprised.  In  view  of  the  biogenetic  law,  this 
would  indicate  that  these  anthropoid  apes  are 
descended  from  an  ancestor  who  was  still  more 
manlike  than  they  are  to-day.  And  the  point  is 
finally  clinched  by  some  facts  which  the  scientist, 
Emil  Selenka,  has  recently  discovered  in  regard 

49 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

to  the  gibbon.  An  unborn  gibbon  in  its  mother's 
womb  at  first  has  well  proportioned  arms  just 
as  if  it  were  to  become  a  human  being.  And  it 
is  only  by  gradual  stages  that  the  arms  of  the 
little  ape  develop  into  those  enormous  acrobatic 
limbs.  If  the  biogenetic  law  is  correct,  then  we 
would  have  in  this  case  an  exact  proof  that  the 
ancestors  of  the  present-day  gibbon  did  not  pos- 
sess those  long  arms  and  were,  therefore,  con- 
siderably more  manlike. 


EMBRYOS  OF  A  GIBBON, 

in  an  advanced  state  of  development.     Mark  the  likeness  to  a 
human   embryo. 

(After  Selenka.) 

Thousands  of  indications  -thus  point  to  the 
fact  which  occurred  even  to  Darwin  when  he  dis- 
cussed these  things  tentatively  for  the  first  time, 

so 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

some  thirty  years  ago.  XA  species  of  mammal  X 
has  once  existed  on  this  globe  which  contained 
the  germs,  not  alone  of  man,  but  also  of  the 
gorilla,  the  chimpanzee,  the  orang-outang  and 
the  gibbon.  All  of  them  have  later  developed 
/from  that  type — unlike  sons^of  the  same  father.  X 
No  doubt  this  creature  was,  in  some  respects,  a 
closer  copy  of  the  present  anthropoid  apes  than 
of  modern  man,  and  it  must  have  been  closest 
to  the  gibbon  of  to-day.  However,  it  was  dis- 
tinguished from  this  gibbon,  as  we  know  him  in 
his  adult  form  by  certain  more  manlike  marks. 
And  if  we  were  to  call  that  primitive  being 
"man,"  because  genuine  man  is  descended  from 
him  and  because  he  has  such  strong  resemblances 
to  human  beings,  then  we  might  say  of  the  pres- 
ent-day anthropoid  apes  that  they  are  descended 
from  man,  instead  of  man  being  descended  'from 
the  orang-outang,  or  the  gorilla,  as  some  lay- 
men frequently  claim.  That  would  be  a  much 
more  correct  statement,  and  would  conform  to 
the  idea  of  Darwin,  who  gave  rise  to  these  dis- 
cussions. 

That  primitive  type  is  no  longer  living  on  this 
globe.    Unless  an  unexpected  discovery  is  made    . 
in  the  partly  unexplored  forest  regions  of  the  in- 
terior of  Africa,  we  may  close  the  books  in  this 

51 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

matter.  At  this  point  then,  our  steps  must  be 
directed  exclusively  towards  the  primitive  world. 
But,  what  can  be  said  in  regard  to  those  primi- 
tive bones  and  the  possibility  of  fitting  them  into 
the  picture  which  we  have  just  drawn? 

Here  we  remember  once  more  that  famous 
Pithecanthropus  of  Trinil,  who  is  half  gibbon, 
half  man.  Is  it  possible  that  he  could  be  the  very 
type  for  which  we  are  looking?  There  is  one 
thing  which  gives  rise  to  doubts,  and  that  is  the 
time  to  which  he  belongs.  We  have  seen  that  it 
is  almost  a  certainty  that  genuine  man  lived  in 
the  second  third  of  the  Tertiary  period,  that  is  to 
say,  in  those  tropical  forests  of  middle  Europe. 
Recently,  flintstone  tools  have  been  found  in 
France  in  the  strata  of  that  period,  which  the 
scientist  called  the  "Miocene  Period."  These 
tools  are  almost  identical  with  certain  stone  tools 
of  the  crudest  kind  which  every  expert  attributes 
to  human  hands.  But  the  great  forests  of  this 
Miocene  period  were  inhabited  by  man-like  apes. 
In  Austria,  Switzerland  and  France,  there  lived 
a  genuine  gibbon  (Pliopithecus)  and  another 
species  lived  in  France,  closely  resembling  the 
chimpanzee,  but  yet  standing  by  itself  without 
being  any  closer  to  man  (Dryopithecus) .  A 
little  later  we  also  find  genuine  chimpanzees  and 

53 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

orang-outangs.  So  much  we  can  tell  by  well 
preserved  bones.  It  is  evident  that  the  unlike 
sons  of  that  mysterious  archetype  had  already 
branched  of!  at  that  period,  and  the  types  had 
become  so  plain  that  they  could  be  separated  into 
anthropoid  apes  and  men. 

It  seems,  however,  that  the  bones  of  Pithe- 
canthropus, which  we  know  belonged  to  the  ex- 
treme end  of  the  Tertiary  period,  are  apparently 
many  thousand  years  younger  than  those  bones 
of  the  Miocene  period.  If  that  creature  of  Trinil 
still  contained  in  the  germ  a  common  thorough- 
bred type,  then  it  follows  that  this  type  must 
have  lived  simultaneously  with  its  unlike  sons 
on  the  island  of  Java,  even  after  the  lapse  of  so 
many  thousand  years. 

Of  course,  such  a  thing  would  not  be  impossi- 
ble. Only  we  might  ask  whether  that  thorough- 
bred type  could  have  been  preserved  in  its  orig- 
inal form  during  this  entire  period.  We  might 
be  inclined  to  suspect  at  least  some  of  the  least 
typical  characteristics  and  assume  that  this  type 
might  have  developed  a  little  further  and  adapted 
itself  to  the  new  conditions,  while  nevertheless 
it  might  still  give  us  a  far  better  idea  of  the  ac- 
tual course  of  development  than  the  present 
anthropoid  apes. 

53 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

It  is  also  logical  to  ask  whether  Pithecan- 
thropus was  not  a  long  surviving  "last  Mohican" 
of  a  transition  form  from  a  genuine  thorough- 
bred type  to  the  genuine  man.  It  all  depends 
upon  the  weight  which  we  lay  upon  the  specific- 
ally genuine  human  marks.  If  any  one  is  more 
attracted  by  the  resemblance  of  that  form  to  the 
present  gibbon,  he  might  argue  that  Pithecan- 
thropus was  a  transition  form  from  the  arche- 
type of  past  genuine  man  to  the  genuine  gibbon. 
This  last  theory  might  be  seriously  considered 
from  the  moment  that  we  could  get  a  glimpse  of 
the  arms  of  that  archetype,  which  we  do  not 
know  as  yet,  provided  they  were  to  show  a 
tendency  toward  the  grotesque  elongation  of  the 
genuine  gibbon  arm.  Let  us  hope  that  the  exca- 
vations in  Java  will  be  diligently  pursued  and 
that  we  may  then  be  able  to  solve  some  of  these 
more  intricate  problems. 

So  much  at  least  is  certain,  that  the  genuine 
common  ancestor  in  question,  who  must  have 
had  at  least  a  very  close  resemblance  to  Pithe- 
canthropus in  the  structure  of  his  skull  and  legs, 
existed  before  the  Miocene  period,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  first  third  of  the  Tertiary  period.  He  rep*3 

(resented  the   "Man"  of  that  time — a   creature! 

I  which  contained  the  possibilities  of  developmentj 

54 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

-^ 

into  genuine  man  and  also  those  of  development  1 

into  a  gibbon,  chimpanzee,  gorilla  and  orang-j 
outang.  Doubtless  the  greater  part  of  his  body 
was  covered  with  strong  hair,  such  as  the  present 
anthropoid  apes  have  inherited  from  him.  He 
is  a  real,  genuine,  living  "Esau."  The  fact  that 
the  smooth  "Jacob,"  man  of  to-day,  has  only  a 
very  slight  indication  of  this  hairy  covering  on 
most  parts  of  his  body,  is  not  a  proof  to  the  con- 
trary. For  we  find  the  instructive  law  on  the 
resemblances  of  the  youthful  forms  to  their  an- 
cestors gives  us  a  very  satisfactory  clue  to  our 
original  ancestor:  the  body  of  the  human  being 
in  the  mother's  womb  is  also,  in  its  first  stages, 
covered  with  thick  woolly  hair.  Even  the  face 
is  covered  just  as  we  see  it  to-day  in  the  case  of 
the  adult  gibbon,  and  only  the  inner  surfaces  of 
the  hands  and  feet  are  left  free.  Evidently  these 
free  places  were  uncovered,  even  in  the  ancestor 
which  this  human  embryo  copies  for  a  short  time. 
This  Esau-like  covering  of  the  human  being  does 
not  disappear  until  immediately  before  birth,  and 
in  a  few  exceptional  cases,  this  covering  has  even 
been  retained  during  life.  This  is  the  origin  of 
the  renowned  men  with  dog  faces. 

Now  we  come  to  a  new  question.    What  is  the 
ancestor  of  that  archetype?    In  what  other  dis- 

55 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

guise  can  we  trace  him  further  back?  In  the 
system,  the  four  anthropoid  apes  are  followed  by 
the  rest  of  the  monkeys.  This  class  again  con- 
sists of  at  least  three  great  groups  which  differ 
from  one  another.  Some  of  them  are  the  long- 
tailed  monkeys  of  Asia  and  Africa,  such  as 
Macacus,  baboons,  etc.,  which  make  up  the  ma- 
jority of  the  popular  monkeys  in  our  zoological 
gardens.  The  second  group  lives  exclusively  in 
America,  and  the  bright  Capuchin  monkey  may 
be  mentioned  as  a  type.  The  third,  also  re- 
stricted to  America,  comprises  a  small  number 
of  little  monkeys,  having  claws  instead  of  nails 
on  most  of  their  fingers  and  toes  and  resembling 
much  more  a  squirrel  than  a  genuine  monkey. 
The  marmoset  is  one  of  them.  These  three 
groups  can  no  more  be  used  in  the  construction 
of  a  consecutive  line  of  development  than  the 
four  anthropoid  apes.  But  a  purely  anatomical 
comparison  leaves  the  impression  that  somewhere 
near  them  the  next  lower  stage  of  man  must  be 
found. 

Even  the  very  first  experts  who  described  the 
gibbon  noticed  that  this  same  gibbon,  aside  from 
his  strong  resemblances  to  the  other  anthropoid 
apes  and  to  man  himself,  also  had  certain  other 
resemblances  very  plainly  developed,  and  these 

56 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

pointed  towards  the  Macacus-like  long-tailed 
monkeys.  These  characters  could  be  inherited 
only  from  the  archetype,  and  this_Jyge_aga_iri 
could  only  have  inherited  them  from  some  still 
older  type,  which  had  a  general  and  much  great- 
er resemblance  to  the  majority  of  the  other  mon- 
keys. That  there  was  once  upon  a  time  a  cer- 
tain ancestor  who  had  an  externally  visible  long 
tail  is  still  evidenced  by  man  himself.  Not  only 
is  man  in  the  tailed  stage  to  this  day,  though  the 
tail  vertebrae  are  no  longer  externally  visible, 
but  these  are  certainly  still  better  developed  in 
man  than  in  the  anthropoid  apes.  Furthermore, 
the  human  embryo  in  the  mother's  womb  once 
more  reveals  the  persistency  of  that  mysterious 
biogenetic  law.  It  has  a  plainly,  visible  external 
tail.  In  exceptional  cases  this  "embryo  tail"  is 
also  preserved  in  adults,  and  in  some  cases  we 
have  those  abnormal  "tail  men,"  whose  existence 
has  often  been  doubted,  but  who  nevertheless 
exist.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  as- 
sume that  certain  Macacus-like  types,  preceding 
the  human  type,  carried  a  genuine  tail  for  a  con- 
stant characteristic.  So  far  as  we  can  judge 
from  fossil  remains  of  bones,  genuine  long-tailed 
monkeys,  similar  to  those  in  present  Asia,  were 
already  in  existence  in  the  middle  of  the  Tertiary 

57 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

period;  in  which  both  man  and  anthropoid  apes 
were  found.  One  species,  Mesopithecus,  lived 
in  great  numbers  in  Greece,  where  many  bones 
of  them  have  been  found.  This  Grecian  monkey 
had  a  very  long  tail.  At  the  same  time  the  form 
of  its  nose  and  the  position  of  its  eyes  gave  it  a 
greater  resemblance  to  the  human  being  than  any 
of  the  present  long-tailed  monkeys  have.  •  On 
the  other  hand,  the  light  hearted  crowd  of  long- 
tailed  monkeys  has  developed  many  characteris- 
tics which  tend  toward  a  direction  leading  away 
from  man.  There  are,  so  to  say,  one-sidedly 
bestialized  forms,  an  extreme  exaggeration  of 
which  is  the  baboon  family,  for  instance,  the 
grotesque  mandril.  The  conclusion  is  inevita- 
ble that  once  again,  at  this  point,  a  line  of  descent 
originally  close  to  man  has  gradually  deviated 
into  a  bypath  and  produced  many  varieties  of 
monkeys  now  living  in  Asia  and  Africa.  There^ 
fore  we  should  once  more  have  to  assume  the 
existence  of  an  archetype  out  of  which  de-j 
veloped,  on  the  one  hand,  the  original  ancestor 
of  man  and  of  the  anthropoid  apes,  and,  on  the 
other,  that  Grecian  Mesopithecus  and  the  many 
side  lines  of  African  and  Asian  long-tailed  mon^ 
keys.  Of  course,  this  archetype  would  have  to 
be  still  a  great  deal  more  ancient  than  the  pre- 
58 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

ceding  one.  It  might  have  existed  as  early  as 
the  first  third  of  the  Tertiary  period.  By  its  ex- 
ternal characteristics,  we  should  certainly  have 
classed  it  among  the  genuine  monkeys,  and  only 
a  few  slight  anatomical  marks  would  have  be- 
trayed to  the  expert  that  he  was  not  dealing  with 
a  monkey  of  later  descent,  but  with  one  in  which, 
so  to  say,  the  third  generation  of  coming  man 
was  still  concealed. 

Now,  it  is  peculiar  that  we  have  actually  found 
remains  of  monkey-like  animals  in  the  first  third 
of  the  Tertiary  period.  They  were  discovered 
by  the  Spanish  explorer  Ameghino  in  Patagonia, 
the  extreme  end  of  South  America,  and  were 
concealed  in  a  layer  of  rock  which  must  have 
been  developed  toward  the  end  of  that  first  third 
of  the  Tertiary  period.  We  call  this  first  third 
the  "Eocene"  period,  or  in  English  the  dawn  of 
the  more  recent  period.  When  Ameghino  first 
analyzed  one  of  these  Patagonian  monkey  skulls, 
it  conjured  up  to  his  imagination  the  ghost  of  a 
very  small  man,  so  that  he  called  it  "Homun- 
culus,"  but  it  seems  that  after  all  this  resem- 
blance to  man  is  not  much  greater  than  that  of 
the  American  monkeys  of  the  Capuchin  type, 
and  that  group  of  Eocene  monkeys  evidently  be- 
longed to  that  class.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 

59 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

present  Capuchin  monkey  is  in  many  respects, 
physically  and  mentally,  man-like.  It  also  has 
secret  relations  with  the  gibbon,  and  thus  to  the 
archetype  of  the  Pithecanthropus  kind.  Thus, 
many  things  favor  the  more  recent  assumption 
that  possibly  these  bright,  gentle  and  highly  in- 
telligent American  Capuchin  monkeys  are  the 
closest  of  any  of  the  present  monkey  forms  to 
that  genuine  monkey  type  of  man  which  belongs 
to  the  Eocene  period. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  small  and  squirrel-like 
marmosets  must  be  eliminated  from  our  line  of 
descent  and  regarded  as  a  side  line.  Most  likely 
they  are  a  one-sided  adaptation  to  special  con- 
ditions in  South  America. 

But  now  that  we  have  gotten  so  far,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  next  question.    If  man  can 
be  traced  so  far  back  in  monkeydom,  he  cannot 
but  share  all  the  vicissitudes  of  monkey  life  fur- 
ther back.    Whatever  may  be  the  general  descent; 
tof  monkeys,  that  is  at  the  same  time  the  line  of! 
jman's  development.    The  prototype  of  monkeys! 
|is  also  that  of  man. 

The  conventional  system  of  mammals  proceeds 
along  a  great  downward  scale.  First  we  have 
the  prosimiae,  bats,  insectivora!  such  as  the 
hedge-hog,  then  ^rnivorjj  ro^^itsf  the  large  and 

60 


THREE  SKULLS  FOR  COMPARISON. 

The  skull  at  the  top  is  thai  of  a  young  Gorilla,  the  one  in 
the  middle  that  of  an  old  Gorilla,  the  one  at  the  bottom  that  of 
a  Man.  Note  how  much  more  man-like  the  skull  of  the  young 
gorilla  is  than  that  of  the  old  one. 

61 


THREE  SKULLS  OF  DIFFERENT  MAMMALS. 

At  the  top  is  the  skull  of  a  carnivore,  a  Cat;  in  the  middle 
that  of  a  rodent,  a  Hare;  and  at  the  bottom  that  of  an  utura- 
fete/a  How. 

62 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

variegated  group  of  ruminants/  etc.  But  this 
scale  is  only  apparently  a  historical  one.  Who- 
ever were  to  imagine  that  man  went  through  all 
these  different  stages  in  succession  would  not 
come  to  any  definite  result.  For  instance,  if  we 
compare  the  teeth  of  a  rabbit  with  those  of  a 
monkey,  we  should  have  considerable  difficulty 
in  accepting  the  idea  that  the  monkey  could  be 
descended  from  a  rabbit. 

It  is  the  same  when  we  compare  two  styles  of 
architecture.  The  one  is  simple  and  noble  and 
the  other  a  sort  of  bizarre  caricature  of  the 
former.  We  do  not  take  kindly  to  the  idea  that 
the  simple  style  should  have  developed  from  the 
caricature.  Just  so,  the  rows  of  teeth  of  mon- 
keys, including  those  of  man,  give  the  impression 
of  a  simple  temple  of  noble  style,  in  which  every- 
thing is  developed  in  conformity  with  a  definite 
and  uniform  system.  But  the  teeth  of  a  rabbit, 
of  a  horse,  and  even  those  of  a  cat,  appear  to  us 
like  a  caricatured  variation  of  that  simple  style, 
going  to  excess  here,  falling  short  there. 

Of  course,  the  opposite  idea  that  all  these  other 
groups  of  mammals  should  have  developed  from 
monkeys  is  equally  improbable.  The  simplest 
historical  premises  oppose  such  an  idea.  Neither 
do  the  remains  of  bones  of  primitive  animals 

63 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

teach  us  that  there  were  at  a  certain  period,  first, 
let  us  say,  ruminants,  later  on,  perhaps  rodents, 
then  carnivora,  and  finally  monkeys.  Nor  do 
they  show  that  there  were  at  first  no  other  higher 
mammals  than  monkeys,  and  then  in  successive 
periods  ruminants,  rodents,  etc.  We  rather  re- 
ceive the  impression  that  all  of  these  groups  ap- 
peared simultaneously  at  a  certain  period. 

Now  it  is  precisely  the  progress  in  our  knowl- 
edge of  extinct  mammals  which  succeeded  finally 
in  leading  us  out  of  this  labyrinth  of  contradic- 
tory assumptions. 

All  those  groups  of  mammals  still  appeared  in 
the  first  third  of  the  Tertiary  period,  the  so- 
called  Eocene  period,  to  which  we  have  re- 
peatedly referred.  Monkeys,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  among  them.  Hence,  if  we  desire  to  learn 
more  about  the  origin  of  these  things,  we  must 
trace  our  steps  further  back,  say  to  the  beginning 
of  this  Eocene  period. 

Now  we  have  found  in  two  places  far  distant 
from  one  another — in  France  near  Cernays  in  the 
vicinity  of  Reims,  and  in  North  America  in  New 
Mexico — the  bones  of  certain_^xtremely  ojd, 
mammalsj)eloriging  to  just  this  period,  and  these 
bpnes^  explain  the  mystery  very  fully.  On  the 
one  hand,  all  of  these  bones' have  a  very  simple 

64 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

and  fundamental  structure.  They  show  a  re- 
markable row  of  teeth  without  extremes,  or  cari- 
catured exaggerations,  and  the  present  monkey 
and  human  teeth  are  easily  derived  from  them. 
Furthermore,  these  skeletons  have  four  feet,  or 
rather  four  hands,  with  five  regular  fingers, 
among  them  one  very  flexible  thumb.  This  is 
another  very  good  prototype  of  the  monkey  and 
human  hand,  which  is  so  widely  different  from 
the  claw  of  the  lion,  or  from  the  shin  and  hoof 
of  the  horse.  In  place  of  nails,  these  five  fingers 
had  an  indefinite  sort  of  thing,  half  way  between 
a  claw  and  a  hoof,  which  might  easily  have  de- 
veloped into  anything,  say,  a  horse's  hoof,  a 
carnivore's  claw,  or  the  nail  of  a  Simian,  or  a 
human  hand. 

On  the  other  side,  these  animals  show  the  be- 
ginnings of  certain  divergences  in  the  structure 
of  their  bones.  Some  of  them  have  more  of  the 
rodent,  others  more  of  the  carnivore,  others  of 
some  dominating  ruminant  character.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  these  simultaneously  represented  a 
very  ancient  group  of  ancestors  which  was  just 
then  beginning  to  branch  out  into  the  various 
great  side  lines  of  mammals.  And  it  is  equally 
certain  that  one  of  these  side  lines  was  composed 
of  monkeys.  Of  course  this  original  side  line 

65 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  monkeys  must  have  resembled  the  original  an- 
cestor in  the  structure  of  teeth  and  hands  and 
must  have  been  a  straight  continuation  of  its 
evolution  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  This  ex- 
plains why  man  and  monkey,  who  to  this  day 
possess  the  simple  normal  teeth  and  the  primi- 
tive hand,  give  the  impression,  now  that  the  an- 
cient group  of  ancestors  has  long  become  extinct, 
that  carnivore,  ruminants,  etc.,  are  nothing  but 
very  extreme  caricatures  of  the  archetype. 

Furthermore,  the  claim  that  the  monkeys  were 
really  a  side  line  of  that  very  primitive  ancestor, 
and  the  most  direct  side  line  at  that,  is  substan- 
tiated by  a  study  of  those  ancient  bones  of  Cer- 
nays  and  New  Mexico.  Just  as  we  still  observe 
in  those  bones  certain  variations  in  the  direction 
of  carnivora,  of  rodents,  of  ruminants,  so  we 
also  find  a  little  group  of  animals  which  gradu- 
ally, but  very  decidedly,  move  in  the  direction  of 
our  monkeys. 

True,  they  are  not  yet  genuine  monkeys,  but 
they  certainly  show  an  unmistakable  resemblance 
to  a  certain  group  of  mammals  which  have  al- 
ways followed  in  the  system  directly  after  the 
monkeys,  and  which  were  often  considered  as 
some  peculiar  retinue  of  genuine  monkeys,  the 
so-called  prosimiae. ' 

66 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


TARSIUS  SPECTRUM. 

This  little  lemur  almost  resembles  a  tree-toad  and  is  related 
to  the  family-tree  of  man. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

To  this  day  there  is  living  in  the  Sunda  Islands, 
that  is  to  say,  in  the  same  locality  where  the 
gibbon  and  the  orang  are  living,  and  where  once 
upon  a  time  Pithecanthropus  struggled  through 
his  existence,  a  queer  little  creature,  partly  re- 
sembling a  small  monkey,  partly  a  leap-mouse, 
with  long  stilted  legs.  This  little  creature  is  so 
funny  in  all  its  aspects  that  it  has  been  called  the 
"tree  toad"  among  mammals.  The  official  name 
of  this  little  forest  gnome  is  Tarsius  spectrum. 
This  Tarsius  is  counted  among  the  prosimiae  in 
the  system.  Quite  a  number  of  animals  about 
the  size  of  a  cat  belong  to  this  group,  some  of 
them  coming  from  Madagascar,  and  known  as 
"Makis."  Furthermore,  there  are  the  so-called 
Galagos  and  the  very  strange  Finger-monkey. 
At  a  certain  period  there  existed  in  Madagascar 
even  some  species  of  prosimiae,  which  were 
nearly  as  large  as  a  man. 

Now  this  little  Tarsius  has  a  certain  character 
which  connects  him  very  closely  with  the  genuine 
monkeys,  first  of  all  with  the  American  Capuchin 
monkey.  Those  who  have  been  present  at  the 
birth  of  a  human  being  will  remember  a  certain 
bloody  mass  which  is  forthcoming  after  the  birth 
of  the  child.  This  is  the  so-called  placenta/  So 
long  as  the  little  human  being  rests  in  its  mother's 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

womb  as  an  embryo,  this  placenta  is  its  most 
important  organ,  because  by  its  help,  the  nourish- 
ing juices  from  the  blood  of  the  mother  pass  into 
the  body  of  the  child  and  thus  feed  it.  The 
various  groups  of  mammals  differ  considerably  in 
the  method  of  forming  this  placenta  in  the 
mother's  womb.  Man  and  the  anthropoid  apes 
have  their  own  peculiar  method.  This  is  another 
excellent  proof  of  the  close  relationship  between 
man  and  these  apes,  and  it  was  a  great  acquire- 
ment for  this  science  when  Selenka  demonstrated 
that  these  processes  followed  the  same  outline  in 
the  gibbon  and  the  orang-outang  as  in  man — a 
process  which  is  otherwise  found  nowhere  but  in 
man.  The  Macacus-like,  long-tailed  monkeys 
follow  a  different  method,  and  the  American 
monkeys  have  another  and  more  primitive  one. 
Now,  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  prosimia 
Tarsius  follows  the  model  of  the  American  mon- 
keys in  forming  this  placenta,  while  the  majority 
of  the  genuine  prosimiae  again  go  their  own 
peculiar  way.  And  since  we  have  found  in 
America  very  old  bones  of  the  species  Tarsius, 
the  probability  grows  that  prosimiae  of  tfie 
Tarsius  type  may  be  the  direct  ancestors  of  the 
American  monkeys.  If  so,  it  is  at  the  same  time 
the  next  station  in  the  evolution  of  man.  This 


69 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

type  of  Tarsitis  of  the  Tertiary  period  would 
certainly  represent  a  further  development  of  our 
old  friends  of  Cernays  and  New  Mexico,  which 
show  certain  divergences  from  the  original  type 
in  the  direction  of  the  prosimia.  The  scientific! 
name  of  these  prosimiae  is  Lemuridae,  and  these 
very  ancient  ancestors  indicating  this  direction ! 
have  therefore  been  called  "Pachylemuridae." 

Let  us  remark  in  passing  that  there  is  still  a 
very  little  group  of  mammals,  the  so-called  in- 
sectivora,  such  as  the  hedge-hog,  moles,  etc., 
that  likewise  have  a  placenta  similar  to  that  of 
Tarsius.  It  is  among  the  hedge-hogs  that  this 
placenta  is  distinctly  visible.  The  student  can 
hardly  fail  to  suppose  that  the  hedge-hogs  are 
likewise  in  some  way  closely  related  to  the  side 
line  which  branches  off  from  the  archetype  in 
the  direction  of  monkeys.  However,  this  ques- 
tion is  not  yet  settled.  At  any  rate,  the  hedge- 
hogs give  the  impression  of  being  members  of 
a  very  ancient  group,  and  they,  more  than  any 
other  living  mammals  of  the  present  day,  seem  to 
have  preserved  most  nearly,  even  in  their  ex- 
ternal structure,  the  actual  form  of  that  primeval 
group  of  Cernays  and  New  Mexico. 

But,  if  we  try  to  solve  the  question  of  the 
ancestors  of  that  original  group  itself,  we  are 

70 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

brought    face    to    face    with  another  historical 
fact. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Tertiary  period.  One  step  further  back  and  we 
find  ourselves  in  the  age  of  the  great  saurians. 
The  geological  picture  has  now  completely 
changed.  We  enter  the  Secondary  period  of  the 
earth's  history,  that  inconceivably  long  epoch  in 
which  the  chalk  cliffs  of  the  Island  of  Rugen,  the 
Jurassic' slate  of  Suabia,  and  the  reddish  sand- 
stone used  in  building  the  Strasburg  Munster 
were  formed.  The  greater  part  of  the  large  fossil 
bones  belonging  to  these  days  were  the  remains 
of  giant  reptiles,  some  of  them  resembling 
dragons.  Those  saurians  swam  around  in  the 
ocean  like  our  present  day  whales,  or  they  rolled 
around  in  the  mud  like  our  hippopotami.  Some 
of  them,  resembling  colossal  kangaroos,  grazed 
on  the  prairies  like  cows,  lumbered  about  on  their 
heavy  hind  legs,  or  jumped  after  their  prey,  and 
some  of  the  most  daring  even  rocked  themselves 
on  batlike  wings  high  up  in  the  air.  It  was  not 
until  gradually  in  the  course  of  this  geological 
period,  which  probably  lasted  many  millions  of 
years,  that  birds  appeared  for  the  first  time — first 
of  all,  the  lizard-bird  Archaeopteryx.  This  transi- 
tion form  shows  very  plainly  in  its  structure  that 

71 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

birds  are  merely  a  side  line  of  the  great  main 
branch  of  reptiles. 

Nevertheless,  during  this  typical  saurian  age, 
there  already  existed  some  mammals,  as  is  proved 
by  the  remains  of  their  bones.  True,  they  do 
not  seem  to  have  played  a  very  prominent  role. 
Their  remains  have  been  found,  therefore,  only 
in  a  few  portions  of  the  secondary  strata.  And 
all  these  scant  remains  belong  to  rather  small 
animals,  but  such  as  they  are  they  are  well  pre- 
served and  teach  us  an  important  lesson. 

In  our  transition  from  the  Tertiary  period 
backward  into  more  primitive  times,  we  become 
aware  of  the  fact  that  all  higher  mammals  gradu- 
ally disappear,  even  that  archetype  of  Cernays 
and  New  Mexico.  Instead  of  them,  the  remains 
of  mammal  bones,  wherever  they  may  appear,  be- 
long to  representatives  of  a  certain  group  of 
lower  mammals,  the  so-called  marsupials.  /• 

The  best  known  type  of  marsupial  is  the  kan- 
garoo. But  there  are  still  a  number  of  other  rep- 
resentatives living,  most  of  them  in  Australia, 
some  of  them  also  in  America.  These  marsupial? 
have,  among  other  peculiarities,  a  bony  projec- 
tion in  their  lower  jaw,  and  this  always  distin- 
guishes their  jaw  from  that  of  any  other 
mammal.  The  fossil  lower  jaws  of  these  second- 

73 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

ary  mammals  always  have  this  very  characteristic 
projection.  They  evidently  belonged  to  a  group 
of  mammals  whose  last  living  representatives  are 
the  present-day  marsupials.  These  bones  are 
also  found  in  Africa,  Asia  and  Europe,  proving 
that  this  race  of  marsupials  formerly  inhabited 
the  entire  earth. 

Under  these  conditions  the  assumption  was 
justified  that  this  primitive  group  of  mammals 
represented  the  most  ancient  type,  from  which 
the  tertiary  archetype  of  the  higher  side  lines 
might  have  developed.  In  that  case,  they  once 
more  show  us  another  mile  stone  in  the  upward 
march  of  disguised  man — a  marsupial  man  as  a 
contemporary  of  the  Ichthyosaurian.  This  gen- 
eral conclusion  is  confirmed  by  a  good  many  de- 
tails. 

Marsupials  owe  their  name  to  a  fact,  which 
every  child  notices  in  the  kangaroos  of  our  zoo- 
logical gardens,  that  is  to  say,  the  female  carries 
its  young,  which  is  born  in  an  immature  state, 
for  a  while  in  a  protecting  fold  of  its  skin,  the 
so-called  pocket.  In  this  pocket  the  young  finds 
the  milk-nipples  which  it  uses  in  suckling  as 
mammals  do.  To  this  day,  the  embryo  of  the 
highest  mammals,  including  that  of  man,  bears 
in  the  position  and  surroundings  of  its  milk- 

73 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

nipples  certain  indications  which  perceptibly 
point  toward  their  original  location  in  a  pocket, 
a  sure  sign  that  the  ancestors  of  all  of  them  once 
went  through  the  marsupial  stage.  A  very  good 
proof  is  furnished'  by  the  present  living  mar- 
supials in  their  peculiar  formation  of  that  im- 
portant organ  of  propagation  in  the  mother's 
womb,  which  we  mentioned  once  before,  the 
placenta.  While  in  our  previous  remarks  we 
mentioned  only  the  different  forms  of  this 
placenta,  we  now  notice  that  the  marsupials 
seem  to  have  remained  stationary  at  the  point 
where  the  placenta  was  in  its  first  stage  of  de- 
velopment. 

The  majority  of  the  marsupials  have  no 
placenta  at  all,  and  this  is  an  indication  of  a 
former  and  still  more  ancient  condition  which  is 
closely  connected  with  the  existence  of  a  pocket 
and  the  premature  birth  of  the  young.  The 
young  was  born  so  early  and  required  the  use 
of  the  milk-nipples  so  prematurely  that  it  did  not 
at  all  need  a  placenta  connected  with  the  nourish- 
ing juices  of  its  mother's  blood.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  few  species  of  Australian  marsupials,  the 
Perameles,  show  the  beginning  of  a  very  simple 
and  rudimentary  placenta,  and  thus  furnish  an 
additional  proof  that  this  important  organ  went 

74 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

through  its  first  stages  in  the  ranks  of  the  mar- 
supials.    In  other  words,  the  marsupials  repre^\ 
pent  the  genuine  ancient  transition  form  from  aj 
Uower  to  a  higher  mammal.     We  shall  have  to 


A   SPECIES  OF  PERAMELES, 

a   type    of   lower    marsupials,   which,    however,    forms   a    sort   of 
placenta  and  thus  approaches  the  higher  mammals. 


assume  that  the  progress  from  these  marsupials 
with  primitive  placentas  toward  that  archetype 
of  Cernays  and  New  Mexico  took  place  during 
the  chalk  period,  that  is  to  say,  the  last  great 


75 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

division  of  the  Secondary  age.     It  is  important/, 
*to  note  at  the  same  time  that  a  hand  with  five 
fingers  and  a  flexible  thumb,  which  have  been  so 
faithfully  preserved  by  prosimiae,  monkeys,  an- 
thropoid apes  and  man,  are  found  among  the 
climbing   species    of   marsupials,    especially   theX 
/American  oppossum. 

Before  the  external  nipples  of  the  breast  are 
formed  in  the  human  embryo,  the  milk  gland  is 
formed  in  the  skin.  If  we  remember  the  bio- 
genetic  law,  it  seems  to  us  that  the  milk  gland 
existed  in  our  ancestors  at  a  certain  stage  be- 
fore the  genuine  nipple  of  the  breasts  came  into 
existence.  At  the  same  time  we  see  the  human 
embryo  at  a  certain  early  stage  of  its  development 
with  a  very  peculiar  construction  of  its  posterior 
opening.  The  opening  for  the  products  of  the 
urinary  and  sexual  organs  is  found  in  the  rectum, 
so  that  there  is  only  one  single  opening  for  all 
three  things,  the  products  of  the  digestive,  the 
urinary,  and  the  sex  organs.  It  is  not  until  the 
third  month  that  a  partition  is  formed  in  the 
rectum  of  the  growing  human  being  by  means 
of  which  henceforth  these  excretions  are  divided 
and  discharged  through  two  openings,  one  for  the 
products  of  the  urinary  and  sex  organs,  the  other 
for  the  products  of  digestion.  This  succession  of 

76 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

organs  compels  us  to  consider  whether  we  have 
not  to  deal  in  this  case  with  a  very  old  inter-rela- 
tion of  things.  Could  it  be  possible  that  mammals 
concealing  man  existed  once  upon  a  time  which 
possessed  milk  glands,  but  no  external  nipples, 
and  which  had  only  one  single  opening  for  the 
products  of  the  urinary,  sex  and  digestive  organs  ? 

There  are  such  mammals  even  in  our  day. 
They  are  known  as  Australian  duckbills.  One 
species  of  them,  living  on  dry  land,  called 
Echidna,  resembles  a  large  hedge-hog  and  is 
protected  by  strong  quills.  It  lives  in  Australia, 
Tasmania  and  New  Guinea.  Another  kind,  liv- 
ing in  the  water  and  called  Ornithorhynchus, 
resembles  in  its  pelt  and  habits  the  otter.  It 
swims  very  well  and  lives  in  the  little  rivers  and 
lakes  of  the  Australian  continent.  Both  duck- 
bills are  without  external  nipples,  but  they  have 
genuine  milk  glands.  The  milk  percolates  through 
a  sieve-like  place  in  the  skin  into  the  mouth  of 
the  young.  At  the  same  time  the  body  of  the 
duckbill  has  only  one  single  opening  for  the 
products  of  the  urinary,  sex  and  digestive  or- 
gans. 

Injhe_  system  these  duckbills  follow  after  the 
marsupials.  Neither  of  them  has  any  placenta. 
Nor  do  they  need  it,  and  that  fpr  a  very  good 

77 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


ECHIDNA   HYSTRIX, 

the  land  duck-bill,  an  archetype  of  mammal  living  in  Australia, 
which  lays  eggs  like  reptiles  and  birds,  but  suckles  its  young 
after  they  have  hatched.  Its  egg,  natural  size,  is  shown  to  th« 
right. 

reason.  They  actually  lay  eggs  in  the  regular 
way.  The  young  is  born  in  an  egg  with  a  parch- 
ment-like wall,  just  like  a  young  turtle  or  lizard. 
But  while  it  is  hatched  from  this  egg  like  a 
young  bird,  it  licks  up  the  milk  of  its  mother 
mammal  fashion.  The  terrestrial  duckbill  has 
furthermore  the  method  of  marsupials ;  it  carries 
first  its  egg  and  then  its  young  in  its  pocket. 
The  aquatic  duckbill,  on  the  other  hand,  does 
not  use  this  method  any  more;  it  digs  a  hole  in 
the  bank  of  a  river,  makes  a  regular  nest  and 
there  lays  its  eggs  openly,  just  like  a  bird. 
The  inevitable  conclusion  from  these  premises 


78 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


ORNITHORHYNCHUS   PARADOXUS, 

the -water  duck-bill,  a  mammal  of  Australia  which  lays  eggs  and 
is  closely  related  to  the  primeval  ancestors  of  present-day 
mammals. 

is  that  these  duckbills  show  us  the  more  ancient 
group  of  ancestors  below  the  marsupials.  In 
other  words,  Australia  has  preserved  for  us  a  few 
"last  Mohicans,"  witnesses  to  a  certain  stage  in 
the  development  of  mammals  and  of  man  in  the 
far  off  days  of  the  primitive  world.  And  all  that 
would  now  be  required  to  complete  the  proof 
would  be  genuine  historical  testimony  given  by 
primitive  fossil  duckbill  bones,  such  as  furnished 
the  required  proof  in  the  case  of  the  marsupials. 
For  a  while  it  seemed  as  if  this  group  would  not 
be  forthcoming.  It  is  true  that  various  little 
teeth  and  remains  of  small  mammal  bones,  not 
belonging  to  any  class  represented  by  living 
mammals,  not  even  the  marsupials,  were  found 
in  the  strata  of  the  age  of  the  great  saurians  far 

79 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

into  this  first  third  of  the  so-called  Trias  period. 
Most  of  the  discoveries  consisted  of  teeth,  but 
neither  of  the  two  duckbills  now  living  has  any 
teeth.  They  are  called  duckbills  because  their 
toothless  jaws  are  covered  with  a  horny  skin 
giving  them  the  shape  of  bird's  bills.  The 
aquatic  species  especially  has  a  genuine  duck 
bill. 

However,  one  fine  day  the  biogenetic  law  once 
more  came  to  our  rescue.  A  young  duckbill  de- 
velops in  its  first  stages  a  sort  of  milk  teeth,  hav- 
ing the  early  characteristics  of  molar  teeth.  No 
teeth  of  any  other  living  or  extinct  animal  cor- 
respond to  the  form  of  these  teeth  of  the  young 
duckbill — with  the  sole  exception  of  those  fossil 
teeth  of  the  saurian  age.  Hence  we  conclude 
that  the  toothless  bills  of  the  duckbills,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  they  look  so  queer  in  a  mammal, 
do  not  represent  an  ancient  heritage.  They  are 
rather  a  newly  acquired  character,  an  adapta- 
tion, which  these  surviving  Australians  have  ac- 
quired during  the  long  period  that  has  elapsed 
since  then.  Their  ancestors  in  the  saurian  age, 
who  were  at  the  same  time  the  genuine  ancestors 
of  the  higher  mammals,  had  teeth,  and  these  are 
the  very  teeth  which  we  now  find  in  a  fossil  state. 
These  ancient  duckbills  with  teeth,  as  one  might 

80 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

call  them,  if  this  term  were  not  self  -contradictory, 
are  known  by  the  scientific  name  of  AUotheria. 
When  duckbills  first  became  known,  their  bills 
were,  of  course,  the  first  thing  that  gave  rise  to 
comment.  Owing  to  their  presence  these  mam- 
mals, which  otherwise  had  all  the  marks  of  a 
mammal,  gave  a  decided  impression  of  a  cross 
with  birds.  For  this  reason  some  people  specu- 
lated from  the  beginning  whether  these  queer 
creatures  did  not  actually  represent  the  transition 
of  a  mammal  to  a  bird.  In  the  light  of  the  ex- 
planation given  just  now,  we  are  not  very  much 
impressed  with  this  speculation,  for  the  bill  ap- 
pears as  something  unessential  and  subsequently 
acquired,  which  has  about  the  same  significance 
as  the  whalebone  in  the  jaws  of  the  whale,  or  the 
exaggerated  claws  of  the  sloth.  But  the  otherx 
/.characteristics  of  these  duckbills  concern  us  much 
more.  There  is  above  all  t 


which  had  not  been  ascertained  by  the  first  ob- 
servers. This  habit  indeed  indicates  the  descent 
of  mammals  from  a  lower  class  of  vertebrates. 
But  this  lower  class  need  not  necessarily  be  birds, 
for  reptiles,  amphibians  and  fish  also  lay  eggs. 
Indeed,  the  egg  of  a  duckbill  resembles  much 
more  that  of  a  reptile,  such  as  a  lizard,  or  a 
turtle,  than  that  of  a  bird.  And  if  we  consider 

81 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

the  structure  of  the  skeleton,  the  resemblance  to 
reptiles  exceeds  that  to  birds.  The  duckbill,  the 
contemporary  of  saurians,  seems  to  lead  directly 
to  the  saurians,  without  touching  the  birds. 

The  straight  succession  of  our  system  misleads 
us  in  this  instance.  Birds  represent  a  subsequent 
and  one-sided  branch  line  of  reptiles,  and  have 
evidently  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  the  develop- 
ment of  mammals.  It  is  true  that  the  birds  have 
also  permanently  warm  blood  like  mammals,  and 
owing  to  this  similarity  they  have  been  placed 
side  by  side  in  the  system.  A  bird  has  often 
warmer  blood  than  a  mammal.  But  this  again 
is  one  of  those  qualities  which,  though  indicating 
a  higher  stage,  were  nevertheless  acquired  inde- 
pendently in  widely  different  periods.  In  this 
connection  we  might  point  to  the  fact  that  the 
representatives  of  other  dissimilar  groups  of 
animals  have  acquired  the  faculty  of  flying  inde- 
pendently and  at  far  distant  stages.  This  is  the 
case,  for  instance,  with  flies,  bees,  dragon-flies, 
butterflies,  flying-fish,  frogs,  such  as  the  flying 
frog  of  the  Sunda  Islands  which  flies  by  means  of 
a  skin  between  its  separate  toes,  and  lizards,  such 
as  the  Australian  flying  lizard.  There  are,  fur- 
thermore, the  birds,  and  among  mammals,  the 
bats  and  the  flying  squirrels.  There  can  be  no 

82 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

question  whatever  of  any  comparison  between 
the  one  or  the  other  of  these  groups  in  the  matter 
of  the  flying  apparatus.  Each  one  of  them,  un- 
der pressure  of  conditions,  has  separately  ac- 
quired this  adaptation.  A  number  of  the  old  and 
extinct  saurians,  such  as  the  Dinosaurians,  the 
Pterodaktyls,  or  flying  dragons,  must  have  been 
in  possession  of  permanently  warm  blood,  so  far 
as  we  are  able  to  ascertain.  A  few  snakes,  such 
as  the  python,  develop  to  this  day  warm  blood, 
under  certain  conditions,  for  instance,  when 
they  have  laid  eggs  and  wish  to  give  them  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  heat  in  hatching.  So,  it  was  na- 
tural that  the  bird  should  acquire  for  life  a  cer- 
tain faculty  which  appearel  already  among  rep- 
tiles from  which  it  is  descended.  As  we  have 
seen,  the  strange  Archaeopteryx  still  represents 
an  unmistakable  transition  form  from  the  general 
reptile  type  to  the  bird.  On  the  other  hand,  no 
visible  line  leads  from  birds  to  mammals.  The 
bat  is  no  more  such  a  transition  stage  than  a 
whale  is  a  transition  from  mammals  to  fish.  In 
both  cases  relatively  highly  developed  mammals 
have  acquired  independent  adaptations,  the  bats 
a  flying  apparatus  and  the  whales  a  swimming 
apparatus. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  the  feathers 

83 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  the  bird  developed  out  of  the  scale  of  the 
lizard.  But  it  seems  quite  improbable  that  either 
a  scale  or  a  feather  should  have  been  transformed 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  assume  the  characteristic 
form  of  hairy  covering  typical  of  mammals. 
Scales,  as  well  as  feathers,  have  evidently  been 
from  the  very  beginning  essential  means  of  pro- 
tecting the  skin,  either  in  defense  against 
enemies,  or  in  the  case  of  birds,  against  the  in- 
clemencies of  the  weather.  We  observe  that 
scales  serve  that  purpose  occasionally  even  in 
mammals,  for  instance,  among  armadillos.  Some 
whales  likewise  possessed  something  like  that  in 
former  times.  But  the  typical  covering  of  the 
skin  of  mammals  consists  of  hair.  And  it  seems 
that  originally  hair  had  nothing  to  do  with  pro- 
tection such  as  is  afforded  by  scales  or  feathers, 
but  rather  served  a  wider  purpose,  embracing  not 
only  protection  but  essentially  feeling.  The  first 
hair  consisted  of  very  fine  feelers  and  performed 
the  functions  of  touch  for  the  skin.  It  was  not 
until  later  on,  when  mammals  acquired  warm 
blood,  that  hair  assumed  also  the  role  of  a  non- 
conductor of  heat. 

Now  when  we  look  about  us  to  find  the  be- 
ginnings of  sense  organs  of  the  skin  which  might 
have  developed  into  hair,  for  instance,  among 

84 


THE  EVOLUTION  QF  MAN 

lower  vertebrates  than  mammals,  we  are  carried 
even  beyond  the  scaly  reptiles  into  the  ranks  of 
amphibians  with  naked  skins. 

In  distinction  from  reptiles,  such  as  lizards, 
snakes,  crocodiles  and  turtles,  the  amphibians 
embrace  newts,  toads  and  frogs.  While  these 
animals  do  not  have  any  hair,  they  nevertheless 
have  peculiar  little  sense  organs  precisely  in 
those  places  of  the  skin  which,  among  mammals, 
carry  hair  and  which  correspond  pretty  closely  in 
their  arrangement  to  the  plan  of  the  hairy  cover- 
ing of  embryos  among  mammals.  According  to 
the  biogenetic  law,  this  might  very  well  indicate 
that  the  amphibians  still  show  to-day  the  primi- 
tive form  of  a  genuine  hairy  covering.  We 
might  well  conclude  from  this  fact  that  the  most 
ancient  mammals,  for  instance,  those  creatures 
belonging  to  the  duckbill  family  which  we  dis- 
cover in  the  first  third  of  the  saurian  period,  the 
so-called  Trias,  are  not  descended  from  genuine 
reptiles,  but  rather  from  amphibians  which  oc- 
cupy a  still  lower  position  in  the  system. 

Now,  it  happens  that  the  living  representatives 
of  amphibians  still  possess  many  a  detail  which 
might  be  regarded  as  an  indication  of  the  direct 
descent  of  mammals  from  them.  It  is  remarka- 
ble that  many  frogs  and  toads  have  very  signifi- 
es 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

cant  habits  of  primitive  care  for  their  offspring. 
Sometimes  it  is  the  males,  sometimes  the  females, 
that  carry  the  eggs  round  with  them.  The  male 
of  the  European  "Obstetric  Toad"  has  the  habit 
of  taking  the  spawn  from  the  female,  wrapping  it 
in  strings  round  its  hind  legs  and  taking  great 
care  to  protect  it.  The  female  of  the  Pipa  of 
South  America,  on  the  other  hand,  carries  it.c, 
eggs  on  its  back,  having  little  pockets  in  the  skin 
of  its  back  in  which  the  eggs  gradually  mature 
and  in  which  the  young  hatch.  Among  other 
toads,  the  skin  has  developed  large  hatching 
pockets  in  which  first  the  eggs  and  later  the 
young  animals  are  carried  about  in  just  the  same 
way  that  we  observe  among  the  land  duckbills 
and  the  marsupials.  Furthermore,  various 
glands  of  the  skin  play  an  important  role  among 
amphibians.  Everyone  is  acquainted  with  those 
glands  of  the  toad  which  excrete  a  sharp  juice 
serving  as  a  protection  against  enemies.  But 
such  glands  as  those  play  a  role  in  the  formation 
of  the  pockets  of  the  Pipa.  It  is  not  a  very  far- 
fetched idea  that  the  young  animal  hiding  in  such 
a  pocket  might  also  begin  to  lick  the  excretions 
of  its  glands,  which  need  not  necessarily  be  caus- 
tic, but  may  serve  as  nutrition.  If  that  is  so,  we 
should  find  ourselves  at  once  at  that  stage  which 


86 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

is  represented  among  mammals  by  the  duckbill, 
the  young  of  which  licks,  during  its  stay  in  the 
pocket,  the  percolating  juice  of  a  gland. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  general  construction  of  a  duckbill  has  many 


A    HUMAN  EMBRYO, 

in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  week  of  its  development.  It  is 
strongly  magnified,  its  natural  size  being  about  one  centimeter. 
Note  the  gill-opening  on  the  neck,  the  fin-like  limbs,  and  the 
plainly  developed  tail. 

points  resembling  those  of  saurians,  in  other 
words,  of  reptiles.  The  only  marked  difference 
in  their  skeleton  is  the  way  in  which  the  lower 
jaw  is  attached  to  the  skull.  This  separates  rep- 
tiles and  mammals  very  distinctly.  Indeed,  the 

87 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


EMBRYO  OF  A  LAND  DUCK-BILL. 

Note  the  similarity  to  the  embryos  of  man  and  monkey,  both 
of  them  in  the  same  stage  of  development. 


EMBRYO  OF  A  MONKEY 

in  about  the  same  stage  as  the  human  embryo.     Note  the  simi- 
larity between  them. 

88 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

attachment  of  the  lower  jaw  to  the  skull  in  rep- 
tiles and  mammals  represents  the  two  extremes 
of  two  independent  methods. 

Now  the  study  of  the  fossils  of  the  primitive 
world  gives  us  some  clue  toward  a  solution  of 
these  contradictory  questions.  The  historical 
time  which  we  should  expect  to  represent  the 
transformation  of  the  most  ancient  duckbill- 
like  mammals  from  the  archetype  next  below 
them  in  the  scale  of  evolution,  would  be  about 
the  transition  from  the  Primary  to  the  Second- 
ary period,  that  is  to  say,  a  time  midway  between 
the  carboniferous  and  the  first  great  saurian 
epoch.  As  it  happens,  it  is  precisely  this  time 
which  again  gives  us  some  fossil  testimony 
touching  unmistakably  on  the  question  now  un- 
der discussion. 

The  present  living  representatives  of  am- 
phibians, such  as  newts,  toads  and  frogs,  were 
evidently  not  in  existence  at  that  early  period. 
They  are  apparently  a  late  bud  on  the  branch 
of  amphibian  descent.  But  in  their  place  there 
existed  very  strange  and  large  amphibians,  some 
of  them  resembling  crocodiles  with  more  or  less 
solid  bony  armor.  These  amphibians  possessed 
many  reptilian  marks,  so  that  they  give  the  im- 
pression that  they  were  in  transition  from  am- 
phibians to  reptiles. 

89 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

Simultaneously  with  them,  there  lived  certain 
reptiles,  small  saurians  which  in  many  import- 
ant respects  looked  like  amphibians  and  on  their 
part  represented  a  mixed  group,  the  other  end 
of  the  bridge,  so  to  say.  Thanks  to  a  happy  co- 
incidence a  living  grandchild  of  these  amphibian 
reptiles  of  the  primitive  world  is  still  found  at 
this  day  in  New  Zealand.  Its  name  is  Hatteria 
punctata.  Its  entire  construction  is  such  that  it 
represents  a  splendid  illustration  of  the  transition 
form  combining  the  newt  and  the  present-day 
lizard  in  an  almost  neutral  shape. 

Finally,  as  a  third  count,  we  mention  the  fact 
that  genuine  large  reptiles,  some  of  them  very 
grotesque  in  form,  lived  in  those  primitive  days. 
The  strange  thing  about  them  is  that  they  have 
undeniable  resemblances,  especially  in  the  struc- 
ture of  their  teeth  to  mammals.  These  are  the 
so-called  Theromorphoi.  Their  bones  have  been 
found  mainly  in  South  Africa,  in  Cape  Colony. 
Their  resemblance  to  mammals  was  so  striking 
that  their  first  discoverers  naturally  thought  they 
had  found  typical  transition  forms  from  reptiles 
to  mammals,  and  there  are  still  many  experts 
who  share  this  view.  Nevertheless,  the  genuine 
reptile  marks,  for  instance,  the  adjustment  of  the 
lower  jaw,  typical  of  the  saurians,  are  so  unde- 

90 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

niable  that  there  are  strong  objections  to  an  en- 
dorsement of  that  view.  It  is  not  credible  that 
the  reptilian  type  should  have  been  so  well  de- 


HATTERIA  PUNCTATA, 

a   reptile  living  in   New   Zealand,   which  is  a   surviving  type  of 
the   oldest  primeval  saurians. 

veloped  by  evolution  in  the  first  place  and  then 
continued  on  towards  the  mammal  type. 

If  we  weigh   all   the   facts,   it  appears   most 
probable  that  a  mixed  group  of  ancestors  existed 


91 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

in  those  days  of  the  latter  part  of  the  Primary 
period,  but  that  this  group  combined  in  the  germ 
amphibians,  reptiles  and  mammals,  just  as  we 
saw  at  a  later  stage  that  the  oldest  mammals  of 
the  Tertiary  period  took  their  departure  from  a 
mixed  group  which  contained  the  possibility  of 
evolution  into  Carnivora,  ruminants,  rodents  and 
prosimiae. 

The  members  of  this  mixed  group  may  have 
resembled  the  present-day  amphibian  newts,  so 
far  as  the  naked  skin  full  of  glands  and  sense 
organs  was  concerned,  and  they  may  have  had 
p6ints  of  contact  with  them  also  as  regards  their 
mode  of  living  and  otherwise.  Their  lower  jaw 
may  have  been  so  constructed  that  it  might  de- 
velop in  the  style  of  a  genuine  reptile  as  well  as 
the  other  extreme  of  the  genuine  mammal,  and 
the  remainder  of  its  bony  structure  may  for 
many  ages  have  resembled  the  living  Hatteria, 
while  other  characteristics  may  have  recalled  the 
duckbill.  Surely,  their  feet  had  five  regular  toes, 
one  of  them  probably  being  a  flexible  thumb,  in 
other  words,  the  basis  of  the  later  "hand."  The 
teeth  of  this  group  must  have  pointed  in  the  di- 
rection of  mammals. 

This  mixed  group  branched  off  into  the  various 
side  lines  which  we  have  already  observed,  each 

92 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

one  of  them  laying  special  emphasis  on  certain 
points  of  the  old  form,  showing  the  naked  newt 
in  one  place  and  the  more  reptile-like  extinct 
armored  amphibian  in  another,  and  a  genuine 
reptile  in  still  another  place.  The  reptilians  may 
at  first  have  assumed  such  forms  as  we  still  ob- 
serve in  Hatteria,  and  out  of  genuine  reptiles 
developed  the  birds  at  a  much  later  period.  Still 
another  side  line  would  be  represented  by  those 
Theromorphoi  of  Cape  Colony  which,  on  the 
whole,  had  a  pronounced  reptilian  character,  but 
still  preserved  in  their  teeth  and  in  a  few  other 
points,  such  marks  as  have  become  typical  later 
on  only  for  mammals.  Finally,  running  parallel 
with  all  the  others  the  genuine  mammals  would 
have  gone  their  own  way. 

There  is  nothing  of  any  consequence  to  pre- 
vent us  from  assuming  that  these  mammals, 
which  reached  their  highest  stage  in  man,  formed 
the  central  line  or  the  crown  of  the  entire  line  of 
descent.  At  any  rate,  they  were  the  most  intel- 
ligent line,  and  they  may  also  have  been  the  most 
favored  physically  and  have  deviated  less  from 
the  characteristics  of  the  great  archetype.  In 
view  of  all  the  facts  known  in  this  case,  these 
conclusions  seem  certainly  logical  and  sound. 

It  is  true  that  genuine  fossil  remains  of  this 

93 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

hypothetical  mixed  group  have  not  yet  been  lo- 
cated. But  it  must  be  remembered  that  our  dis- 
cussion is  now  dealing  with  sections  of  the 
earth's  history  which  are  extending  into  eons  of 
time  in  which  all  things  are  becoming  indistinct 
and  vague.  To  the  extent  that  we  venture  into 
the  dim  past,  our  proofs  must  be  founded  more 
and  more  on  circumstantial  evidence.  No  one 
could  expect  that  all  the  typical  stages  and  their 
inter-relations  should  be  distinctly  seen,  it  must 
be  sufficient  to  trace  in  its  approximate  outlines 
the  logical  course  of  the  main  growth.  There 
are  a  great  number  of  special  witnesses  to  make 
a  good  case  for  our  further  investigation. 

We  have  now  gotten  far  beyond  the  saurian 
period  into  the  so-called  Primary  age.  We  are 
approaching  those  most  ancient  epochs  which 
gives  us  any  direct  evidence  of  primitive  life  on 
earth  by  means  of  petrified  specimens.  We  meet 
in  that  period  numerous  masses  of  mineral 
strata,  which  were  once  precipitated  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea  in  the  form  of  mud.  These  strata 
bear  no  other  fossil  remains  of  animals  than 
those  of  fishes.  Evidently  these  were  then  the 
sole  representatives  of  the  animal  world. 

We  receive  the  impression  that  all  animal  life! 
I  at  that  remote  Primary  age  was  concentrated  in  | 

94 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

fishes,  amphibians,  reptiles  and  all  other  verte- 1 
brates  being  contained  in  fish  and  no  other  verte- 
jbrate  existing  beside  them. 

This  historical  testimony  happens  to  coincide 
exactly  with  the  conventional  system  in  which 
the  fish  follow  immediately  after  the  reptiles  and 
amphibians.  A  fish  is  distinguished  from  an 
adult  newt,  frog,  lizard,  turtle,  bird  or  mammal, 
including  man,  by  the  way  in  which  it  breathes. 
All  other  vertebrates  breathe  through  lungs  in 
the  open  air.  But  fish  represent  a  perfect  adapt- 
ation to  life  in  the  water.  Since  a  fish,  however, 
also  requires  air  for  breathing,  it  has  developed 
an  organ  which,  being  continuously  surrounded 
by  water,  can  assimilate  the  air  contained  in  this 
water.  This  organ  consists  of  the  so-called  gills 
located  in  the  neck  of  the  fish. 

Now,  it  is  a  fact  well  known  to  every  school 
boy  that  the  so-called  tadpole  hatches  out  of  the 
eggs  of  newts,  frogs  and  toads.  This  tadpole 
lives  exclusively  in  the  water  exactly  like  a  fish, 
and  breathes  only  through  regular  gills.  Not  un- 
til the  newt  or  frog  abandons  the  early  stage  of 
the  larva,  does  it  acquire  the  faculty  of  breath- 
ing through  genuine  lungs  and  shed  the  gills, 
much  in  the  same  way  that  human  children  shed 
their  milk  teeth.  The  tadpole  is  nothing  less 

95 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

than  an  embryo  set  free.  *  And  from  the 
genetic  law,  which  recognizes  in  the  embryo  the 
portrait  of  its  ancestor,  we  conclude  therefore 
that  newts  and  frogs  are  descended  from  crea- 
tures which  breathed  through  gills,  that  is  to  say, 
descended  from  fish,  since  they  are  the  only 
vertebrates  from  which  we  may  choosex 

But  if  these  newts  and  frogs,  according  to  the 
assumption  that  we  made  a  while  ago,  are  noth- 
ing but  a  side  line  of  that  main  group  from 
which  mammals  also  developed  once  upon  a 
time,  nothing  remains  for  us  but  to  assume  that 
this  main  group  in  its  entirety  leads  back  to  a 
preceding  station  of  water  animals  breathing 
through  gills. 

Some  one  may  object  and  ask  how  it  is  that 
no  other  animals  besides  frogs  and  newts,  say, 
for  instance,  reptiles,  birds  and  mammals  up  to 
man,  have  preserved  breathing  through  gills  in 
the  embryonic  stage.  Why  does  not  a  young 
human  being  first  become  a  tadpole  before  it  be- 
comes a  man?  Well,  in  the  first  place,  the  bio- 
genetic  law  is  not  absolute.  Very  often  it  shows 
itself  only  in  dim  outlines.  On  account  of  subse- 
quent adaptation  for  purposes  of  protection,  or 
for  other  reasons,  some  of  those  reversions  to 
type  have  been  subsequently  eliminated.  The 

96 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

most  useful  character  in  the  last  analysis  pre- 
vailed. And  wherever  a  repetition  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  ancestors  was  too  tedious,  this  or  that 
stage  was  finally  restricted  or  entirely  eliminated. 
What  good  could  an  early  tadpole  stage  in  the 
water  do  a  bird  or  a  mammal  ?  On  the  contrary. 
We  see  often  among  certain  frogs  and  newts  a 
tendency  to  transfer  the  tadpole  stage  into  the 
egg,  or  to  go  through  it  before  the  young  is 
hatched  at  all.  There  is,  for  instance,  a  tree  toad 
on  the  Island  of  Martinique  which  has  become 
known  through  such  a  simplification  of  the  evo- 
lutionary process.  The  tadpole  of  this  little  toad 
no  longer  hatches  out  of  the  egg. 

But  granted  that  all  this  is  so,  should  not  the 
embryo  of  mammals,  reptiles  and  birds  show  at 
least  traces  of  a  tadpole  or  fish  stage  in  the 
mother's  womb,  or  in  the  egg?  It  is  the  most 
remarkable  proof  of  the  reliability  of  the  bio- 
genetic  law  that  this  is  actually  the  case. 

No  matter  what  embryo  we  may  study, 
whether  it  is  that  of  a  lizard,  a  snake,  a  crocodile 
or  that  of  the  New  Zealand  Hatteria,  or  of  a 
turtle,  an  ostrich,  a  stork,  a  chicken,  a  canary,  a 
duckbill,  a  marsupial,  a  whale,  a  rabbit,  a  horse, 
or  finally  of  a  long-tailed  American  monkey  or 
anthropoid  gibbon — the  embryo  at  a  certain  stage 

97 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  its  development  always  shows  a  perceptible 
tadpole  or  fish  stage.  Its  neck  shows  the  marks 
of  the  gills  and  the  characteristic  intervals  be- 
tween them  by  which  the  fish  breathing  in  water 
permits  it  to  circulate  freely  and  flow  around  the 
breathing  surfaces  of  the  gills.  Furthermore, 
the  limbs  which  the  embryos  are  just  forming  at 
this  stage  have  likewise  the  plain  outlines  of  fins. 
They  push  outward  in  the  shape  of  round  disks, 
and  it  is  only  the  subsequent  development  which 
results  in  their  further  transformation,  that  is  to 
say,  into  actual  fins  here,  into  the  swift  lower  leg 
of 'a  horse  with  a  single  toe  there,  or  finally  into 
the  wings  of  a  bird  or  the  flying  hand  of  a  bat. 
If  any  strict  scientific  proof  were  still  needed  for 
our  claim  that  all  these  higher  vertebrates  con- 
verge into  a  common  archetype,  it  is  obviously 
given  everywhere  by  this  common  heritage  of  a 
gill  and  fin  embryo,  either  in  the  egg  or  in  the 
mother's  womb.  The  gills  and  fins  show  that  the 
oldest  archetype,  with  which  we  are  now  dealing, 
was  represented  by  a  gill  and  fin  animal — in  other 
words,  by  a  fish. 

There  still  remains  this  question  to  be  an- 
swered: How  is  it  with  human  beings  in  this 
respect?  Every  text-book  on  anatomy  to-day 
gives  a  satisfactory  answer.  The  embryo  of 

98 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

human  beings  at  a  certain  stage  is  likewise  pro- 
vided with  traces  of  gills  on  its  neck  and  with 
finlike  disks  in  the  places  where  arms  and  legs 
develop  later  on.  This  is  as  universally  accepted 
as  the  fact  first  stated  by  Copernicus  that  the 
earth  revolves  around  the  sun.  No  man  who  has 
the  least  respect  for  truth  can  deny  this  fact. 
Nevertheless,  there  are  people  who  find  this  very 
plain  fact  of  embryology  very  little  to  their  lik- 
ing, and  who  therefore  frequently  attempt  to 
brand  it  as  a  "falsification."  But  every  university 
text-book  in  the  hands  of  every  student  of  medi- 
cine, which  is  used  as  a  basis  for  the  state  exami- 
nations, contains  a  statement  of  this  simple  fact, 
and  if  any  student  were  to  deny  it  during  his 
examination  he  would  be  severely  reprimanded 
by  the  state  examiner.  People  who  still  refer  to 
such  undeniable  and  scientifically  recognized 
facts  as  falsifications  place  themselves  outside 
the  pale  of  all  moral  premises  and  scientific  re- 
search. 

It  is  a  fact,  then,  that  man  is  likewise  de- 
scended from  the  fish. 

But,  if  we  ask  how  it  happened  and  what  were 
the  external  causes  which  transformed  in  the 
far  off  primitive  days  a  fish  breathing  through 
gills  into  a  land  animal  breathing  through  lungs, 

99 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

there  is  once  more  a  living  form  which  gives  a 
direct  clue.  In  a  few  small  rivers  of  the  eastern 
part  of  the  Australian  continent,  a  creature  has 
been  found  which  externally,  so  far  as  scales,  fins 
and  gills  are  concerned,  resembles  a  large  salmon 
or  carp.  But  if  we  study  its  internal  structure 
we  find  that  it  has  also  perfectly  developed, 
serviceable  lungs,  and  if  we  study  its  mode  of  liv- 
ing the  logical  purpose  of  this  double  supply  of 
breathing  organs  becomes  plain.  During  the 
dry  season  the  little  rivers  of  this  region  dry  out 
almost  completely.  Nothing  remains  of  them 
but  a  few  pools  of  bad,  brackish  water  in  which 
the  fishes  are  crowded  together  and  encroach  on 
one  another's  supply  of  air.  Under  these  trying 
conditions,  this  strange  animal  swims  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  water,  draws  air  into  its  lungs  and 
thus  breathes  after  the  manner  of  a  genuine  land 
animal,  which  dispenses  altogether  with  water 
for  breathing  purposes. 

This  paradoxical  fellow  who  can  change  him- 
self at  will  into  a  fish  and  into  a  newt,  has  been 
called  the  "newt-fish,"  and  its  Latin  name  is 
Ceratodus.  But  this  name  was  originally  in- 
vented for  the  purpose  of  applying  it  to  a  band 
of  fishlike  creatures,  which  may  be  traced  by  fossil 
remains  throughout  a  long  evolution  far  back  into 

100 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

the  earliest  Primary  period,  and  which  are  distin- 
guished by  very  peculiar  teeth  in  the  roof  of  the 
mouth.  And  the  Australian  Ceratodus  of  our 
day  has  exactly  the  same  kind  of  teeth.  Hence, 


CERATODUS  FORSTERI, 

living  in  Queensland,  Australia.  It  has  gills,  the  regular 
breathing  apparatus  of  fishes,  but  also  lungs,  the  breathing 
organ  of  adult  newts,  frogs,  reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals. 

we  logically  conclude  that  it  has  preserved  this 
peculiar  double  method  of  breathing  from  the 
days  of  primitive  creation,  and  we  refer  to  it  as  a 
last  straggler  of  a  real  transition  group  from 

101 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

primeval  fish  breathing  through  gills  to  the  first 
primeval  animal  breathing  through  lungs — in 
other  words,  to  that  theoretical  mixed  group  con- 
taining the  principal  characteristics  of  amphib- 
ians, reptiles  and  mammals.  The  fossil  remains 
of  those  primitive  relatives  of  Ceratodus  are  con- 
sidered as  parts  of  creatures  belonging  to  this 
transition  group.  /At  all  events,  this  Australian* 

)t  Ceratodus  shows  very  clearly  what  the  conditions 
are  in  which  a  lung  may  develop.  This  is  simply 
the  outcome  of  lack  of  water,  or  lack  of  air  in  « 

/the  water.  / 

Some  might  ask  how  it  happened  that  a  new 
organ  could  develop  just  when  it  was  needed 
most,  very  much  like  a  fairy  table  which  is  set 
whenever  the  wish  is  expressed.  The  witchery 
of  nature  can  never  come  out  of  the  unknown; 
it  has  always  some  logical  connection.  Indeed, 
the  lungs  of  Ceratodus  on  closer  study  reveal  the 
fact  that  they  are  merely  a  transformation  of  an 
organ  which  all  genuine  fish  carry  with  them — 
the  so-called  swimming  bladder.  This  swimming 
bladder  forms  a  sort  of  balloon  filled  with  air  in 
the  body  of  the  fish,  and  it  serves  in  the  first  place 
as  a  means  of  overcoming  the  weight  of  the  fish 
in  the  water.  This  organ  fulfills  a  useful  purpose 
in  rising  and  sinking,  and  to  this  end  it  was  pro- 

102 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

vided  with  a  valve  for  its  regulation.  Many  fish 
therefore  retained  an  open  connection  between 
the  swimming  bladder,  the  intestines  and  the 
mouth  for  the  purpose  of  inhaling  or  exhaling 
air.  This  is  the  starting  point  of  the  lungs.  The 
balloon  or  bladder  in  the  vicinity  of  the  aesopha- 
gus  being  filled  or  closed  at  will,  it  served  at  the 
same  time  to  feed  the  arteries  of  its  walls  with 


A  SHARK. 

The   sharks  are  a  primeval  group   of  ancestors  of  fishes  and 
are  related  to  the  family  tree  of  man. 

oxygen.  Once  it  had  come  into  operation,  it 
could  under  severe  conditions  be  used  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  gills  in  times  when  water  was 
scarce.  When  these  conditions  continued  for  a 
long  period  of  time,  the  swimming  bladder  as- 
sumed this  role  permanently  and  became  a  genu- 
ine lung,  while  the  gills  atrophied  until  nothing 
remained  of  them  but  traces  in  the  embryo.  Thus 
the  land  animal  sprang  into  being,  or  to  express 

103 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

it  with  a  view  to  the  great  line  of  our  evolution, 
man  emancipated  himself  from  the  stage  of  water 
animals. 

Now  that  we  have  found  that  Ceratodus  is 
the  living  representative  of  another  "bridge/'  or 
at  least  one  side  of  it,  we  are  naturally  anxious 
to  find  the  other  pillar  of  that  bridge.  That  is  to 
say,  we  should  like  to  know  what  other  species 
of  fish  helped  to  make  this  bridge,  for  there  is  a 
wide  difference  between  fish  and  fish. 

When  we  mention  fish  to  a  layman,  his  first 
thought  is  of  those  kinds  which  he  finds  on  his 
table  and  with  which,  under  the  present  condi- 
tions of  natural  education,  he  is  more  familiar 
than  with  zoological  literature.  The  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  table  fish  consists  of  so-called 
"bony  fish,"  that  is  to  say,  all  of  them  have  a  more 
or  less  solid  skeleton.  All  of  the  European  river 
fish  belong  to  this  class,  the  trout,  the  pike,  the 
carp,  etc.,  and  such  sea  fish  as  flounder,  herring 
and  codfish.  If  we  find  a  jar  of  delicious  caviar 
on  our  table,  or  if  our  meal  is  crowned  with  ex- 
pensive Russian  sterlet,  we  meet  another  group 
of  fish,  the  so-called  Ganoids.  The  proudest  rep- 
resentative of  this  class  is  the  sturgeon,  the  eggs 
of  which  are  used  as  caviar.  These  Ganoids  are 
especially  distinguished  by  the  fact  that  some  of 

104 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

them  have  a  very  soft  skeleton,  consisting  of 
cartilage  instead  of  bones. 

This  cartilage  skeleton  becomes  permanent  in 
a  third  group,  which  is  not  admitted  to  our  table, 
but  may  be  found  on  that  of  the  Chinese,  the 
sharks,  which  are  known  at  least  by  name  to 
everybody. 

Separated  from  these  three  groups  of  fish  by 
a  wide  chasm,  there  is  a  fish-like  creature  which 
is  very  highly  appreciated  by  gourmands— the 
lamprey.  "' 

Finally,  there  remains  one  solitary  and  very 
strange  little  fish,  the  so-called  lancet-fish  or  Am- 
phioxus,  which  is  distinguished  from  all  other  fish 
by  the  extreme  simplicity  of  its  structure. 

A  comparison  of  these  five  groups  of  fishes 
leads  to  the  following  conclusions  in  regard  to  the 
descent  of  man: 

If  it  is  a  fact  that  Ceratodus  is  actually  a  part 
of  that  bridge  which  connects  with  man,  then  the 
other  end  of  that  bridge  could  not  be  found 
among  fish  with  a  bony  and  solid  skeleton,  but 
among  those  which  have  a  cartilaginous  skeleton, 
the  foremost  ofk  which  are  the  sturgeons.  Cera- 
todus itself  still  has  a  soft  skeleton  similar  to 
that  of  the  sturgeons.  It  is  true  that  amphibians, 
reptiles  and  mammals  have  a  very  solid  skeleton, 

105 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

more  solid  even  than  that  of  the  trout  and  her- 
ring. It  is  evidently  a  separate  adaptation.  The 
connecting  link  following  the  Ceratodus  class  is 
found  below  the  entire  class  of  bony  fish  which 
are  once  again  a  special  side  line. 

The  Ceratodus  class  of  fish  have  still  other 
conspicuous  relations  to  fish  of  the  sturgeon  class. 


A  LAMPREY, 

the  representative  of  a  group  of  fish  intermediate  between  the 
Amphioxus  type  and  the  Sharks. 

The  historical  evidence  coincides  with  these 
marks,  for  sturgeons  were  present  in  extraordi- 
narily large  numbers  during  the  Primary  age. 
In  fact,  there  were  so  many  species  of  them  that 
they  represented  for  a  while  the  entire  fish  family 
on  this  earth.  Wherever  we  see  in  museums 

106 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

their  beautiful  resplendent  scales,  there  we  are 
face  to  face  with  another  disguise  of  man,  which 
takes  us  far  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  the 
Primary  age. 

Taking  the  soft  skeleton  as  a  basis  for  further 
research,  it  becomes  evident  that  sharks  are  the 
next  stage  in  our  line  of  descent.  The  sharks 
played  likewise  a  very  prominent  role  in  those 
primitive  days,  and  to  this  day  they  are  the  most 
dangerous  as  well  as  the  most  intelligent  of  all 
fish.  In  a  multitude  of  fine  traits  the  shark  is  a 
genuine  prototype  of  higher  vertebrates  trans- 
lated into  fish  life.  The  simple  plan  of  four 
limbs  is  sharply  outlined  in  its  fins,  that  charac- 
teristic which  has  become  so  full  of  meaning  in 
the  subsequent  evolution.  Our  teeth,  which  have 
become  so  typical  in  their  present  form  as  a  mark 
distinguishing  man  from  all  other  animals,  may 
be  derived  by  strict  anatomical  logic  from  a  basic 
plan  found  among  sharks,  which  is  actually  start- 
ling for  the  layman.  The  shark  has  a  formidable 
set  of  teeth.  But,  in  its  mouth,  it  has  also  de- 
veloped a  special  trait  in  the  way  of  thorny 
bristles  which  also  appear  in  a  less  developed 
form  in  other  parts  of  its  body.  The  entire  sur- 
face of  the  shark's  skin  is  covered  with  peculiar 
and  very  fine,  but  rough,  prickles,  and  the  skin 

107 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  the  mouth  has  developed  these  into  specially 
strong  and  solid  thorns,  evidently  for  the  good 
purpose  of  holding  on  to  the  food  of  these  fish. 
This  is  a  typical  illustration  of  the  genesis  of 
"teeth"  and  without  this  clue  it  would  be  a  very 
difficult  problem  to  explain  their  origin. 

There  are  still  further  points  of  evidence.  We 
have  just  seen  that  the  shark  has  the  basic  plan 
of  four  limbs  in  the  form  of  fins.  The  lamprey, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  none  of  that  as  yet,  but  it 
has  the  beginning  of  a  skull  in  a  sort  of  skin  and 
cartilage*  pouch.  Amphioxus,  finally,  has  not 
even  a  trace  of  that.  This  would  give  us  another 
chain  of  evidence.  XThe  line  of  evolution  seems* 
to  go  upwards  from  Amphioxus  by  way  of  the 
lamprey  to  the  shark,  and  other  things  which  we 
observe  at  the  same  time  fit  very  well  into  this  x 
^outline. 

Throughout  this  region  in  the  process  of  evo- 
lution we  find  a  number  of  details  which  do  not 
become  intelligible  until  we  meet  them  again  in 
very  perfect  forms  in  far  higher  stages.  In  the 
life  processes  of  some  sharks,  for  instance,  a 
genuine  placenta  formation  will  suddenly  appear, 
the  embryo  being  nourished  through  a  placenta. 
Like  a  flash  of  lightning  the  thought  strikes  us 
that  nature  at  this  stage  suddenly  tried  some- 

108 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

thing  which  was  temporarily  feasible  and  served 
as  a  means  of  adaptation,  but  was  soon  dropped, 
and  did  not  reappear  and  become  typical  until  the 
mammals  arose. 

Again,  in  the  development  of  the  eggs  of  the 
lamprey,  we  see  a  sudden  flaring  up  of  almost 
the  identical  method  which  has  later  become  typi- 
cal for  the  amphibians  of  the  present  day.  All 
these  things  indicate  that  at  this  stage  we  meet 
once  more  one  of  those  ancient  mixed  groups, 
typical  for  our  line  of  descent,  which  contained 
the  historical  germs  of  all  higher  forms  and  were, 
so  to  say,  reservoirs  for  all  the  possibilities  of 
subsequent  evolution. 

At  the  same  time,  we  approach  at  this  stage 
an  entirely  new  and  exceedingly  significant  point 
of  departure,  the  source  of  all  vertebrates  in  gen- 
eral. 

What  is  the  characteristic  mark  of  a  verte- 
brate, including  man  ?  The  back  bone,  that  great 
internal  prop  of  the  body.  Well,  then,  we  see 
the  back  bone  growing  softer  and  softer  among 
the  Ceratodus  class,  sturgeons  and  sharks,  and  it 
seems  to  dissolve  more  and  more  the  further  back 
we  trace  it.  In  the  lamprey  and  finally  in  Am- 
phioxus  .this  backward  formation  is  almost  com- 
pleted. There  the  proud  column  has  become 

109 


TPIE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

quite  a  thin  thread  of  cartilage.  It  looks  as  if  the 
backbone  had  gradually  melted  away  like  a  piece 
of  sugar  in  coffee.  The  spinal  cord  is  no  longer 
surrounded  by  solid  bone,  it  extends  through 
the  body  as  a  string  of  nerves,  just  as  it  does 
among  worms  or  insects.  And  nothing  indicates 
that  typical  characteristic  which  divides  verte- 
brates absolutely  from  all  other  animals,  but  the 
position  of  this  nerve  string  above  the  cartilagin- 
ous thread  and  above  the  digestive  tract,  while 
in  all  other  animals  the  great  nerve  string  is  al- 
ways located  below  the  digestive  tract.  The  back- 
bone is  here  called  merely  the  "chorda,"  and  we 
are  here  evidently  at  the  point  where  the  verte- 
brates dissolve  into  invertebrates. 

And  what  does  it  matter?  If  man  is  disguised 
in  a  lamprey  or  an  Amphioxus,  then  we  may  as 
well  look  for  him  entirely  outside  of  the  verte- 
brates. One  species  of  lamprey,  which  bore  their 
way  into  the  bodies  of  other  fish  and  live  as  para- 
sites upon  them,  were  still  mistaken  for  worms 
by  Linnaeus  himself.  And  the  discoverer  of  Am- 
phioxus thought  that  he  had  found  a  snail,  which 
it  indeed  resembles  far  more  than  a  fish  when  we 
dig  it  up  from  its  hiding  place  in  wet  sand  and 
see  its  transparent  and  lancet-like  little  body. 

Any  way,  it  makes  no  difference  theoretically, 

no 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


AMPHIOXUS   LANCEOLATUS, 

and  its  development  in  the  egg.  This  development  shows  cross- 
sections,  first  of  a  hollow  ball,  then  of  the  stage  when  this  ball 
begins  to  double  up,  until  an  almost  closed  body  with  skin  and 
stomach  membranes  and  one  orifice  is  formed.  The  last  stage 
represents  the  so-called  Gastrula. 


Ill 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

if  we  descend  still  further  even  into  the  world 
of  the  very  low  and  entirely  invertebrate  animals. 
Of  course,  in  practice  we  shall  have  to  apply,  still 
more  than  heretofore,  what  we  have  previously 
said  about  circumstantial  evidence.  In  the  first 
place,  one  source  fails  entirely  at  this  point,  that 
of  geology.  We  are  compelled  to  push  backward 
far  beyond  even  the  Primary  period  into  the  very 
dimmest  time.  All  direct  proofs  suddenly  fail  at 
this  stage.  There  are  no  fossils  beyond  the  Pri- 
mary ones.  The  minerals  of  more  ancient  epochs 
of  the  earth's  development  have  been  so  trans- 
formed by  a  process  of  crystallization,  the  cause 
of  which  we  do  not  yet  understand,  but  which 
are  in  some  way  connected  with  pressure  and 
heat,  that  impressions  of  fossil  specimens  of 
former  living  bones  can  no  longer  be  discovered 
in  them.  Now  these  so-called  crystalline  slates 
are  evidently  the  product  of  water,  hardened  sedi- 
ments of  the  sea,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  assume 
that  the  sea  in  which  they  were  formed  contained 
no  living  beings  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  there 
are  important  reasons  contradicting  such  an  as- 
sumption. The  animals  of  the  Primary  period 
are  far  too  highly  developed  to  represent  the  very 
first  animals  on  this  globe,  unless  we  renounce  the 
idea  of  development  entirely  and  believe  that  the 


112 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

first  fauna  and  flora  fell  ready  made  from  heaven. 
But  the  fact  remains  that  from  this  time  on  we  no 
longer  find  any  remains  of  the  ancient  animals 
and  plants,  x  If  we  wish  to  make  further  concluX 

vsions  we  can  only  rely  on  the  now  surviving  lower 
and  lowest  creatures  and  look  for  points  of  con- 
tact with  them  in  the  embryonic  stages  of  higher^ 

^animal  sx 

With  this  understanding,  we  now  proceed  to 
discuss  the  further  evidences  on  which  we  may 
rely  from  now  on. 

Among  all  the  animals  now  known  and  living 
below  Amphioxus,  there  is  only  one  single  small 
group  which  still  shows  a  direct  indication  of  a 
backbone,  the  so-called  ascidians.  These  are  small 
marine  animals  which -are  surrounded  by  a  cloak 
of  wood-like  substance,  very  much  as  snails  sur- 
round themselves  with  a  well-nigh  closed  house. 
To  judge  by  their  general  construction,  these 
ascidians  would  be  most  logically  classed  among 
the  worms,  save  for  a  few  points  of  contact  with 
mollusks.  Among  these  ascidians  a  fine  thread 
of  cartilage  appears,  which  has  about  the  same 
position  as  the  "chorda"  of  Amphioxus.  Most 
of  them  have  this  cartilage  only  in  the  embryonic 
or  larval  stage,  but  a  few  of  them  preserve  it  for 
life.  There  is  a  strong  possibility  that  the  ascid- 

113 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

ians  are  very  closely  related  to  the  vertebrates. 
It  is  true  that  on  the  one  side  they  are  buried 
deeply  in  the  worm  type  far  below  Amphioxus. 
But  on  the  other  side  they  have  the  chorda,  the 
first  trace  of  a  genuine  backbone.  But  since  some 
of  them  show  this  chorda  only  in  the  embryo 
stage,  it  seems  evident  that  their  ancestors  had 
a  still  stronger  hold  on  this  rudiment,  and  were 
therefore  still  closer  to  the  vertebrates  than  most 
of  the  present  ascidians,  which  have  evidently 
somewhat  degenerated  in  this  respect.  So  that 
Amphioxus  and  ascidians  would  be  two  branches 
of  the  common  archetype  which  would,  first  of 
all,  have  developed  the  chorda.  This  archetype 
in  order  to  produce  the  present-day  ascidians 
must  have  been  in  all  other  respects  unmistakably 
a  wormlike  animal.  In  short,jwej2just  jpok  for 
other  traces  of  man — in  worms. 

The  term  "worm"  applies  in  the  system  to  an 
enormous  mass  of  different  animals.  There  are 
hundreds  of  groups  of  fundamentally  different 
worms.  Some  of  them  are  of  a  higher  order, 
with  blood  and  sense  organs  and  a  genuine  cen- 
tral nerve  system.  We  would  have  to  derive 
vertebrates  most  likely  from  them.  If  so,  we 
should  imagine  a  worm,  which  would  not  pos- 
sess a  chorda  like  Amphioxus  or  the  lamprey,  but 

114 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

would  at  least  have  a  nerve  string,  which  could 
later  on  develop  into  the  spinal  cord  of  a  fish, 
and  below  which  the  digestive  tract  would  extend 
in  the  form  of  a  hose  with  one  opening  at  each 
end  of  the  body.  The  entire  form  would  have 
no  fin-legs,  but  would  be  a  typical  worm.  This  . 
is  the  outline  to  which  most  of  the  present  higher 
worms  actually  correspond. 

At  the  same  time  we  now  find  lower  groups 
of  worms  which  evidently  belong  further  back  in 
the  scale.  They  have  no  complex  nerve  appara- 
tus, no  blood  system  and  no  opening  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  body.  We  are  justified  in  assuming 
that  they  represent  an  older  type,  a  sub-stage  of 
the  worm  type.  In  other  words,  within  the  worm 
family  we  should  have  to  look  for  man  in  various 
disguises  leading  from  the  complex  to  the  sim- 
ple. There  is  still  something  else  to  consider. 
In  our  system,  apart  from  the  vertebrates,  there 
are  still  three  other  great  groups  of  invertebrates 
which  are  of  a  higher  organization  than  the 
worms.  They  are,  first,  the  crustaceans'  spiders 
and  insects;  then,  the  mollusks,  such  as  snails, 
muscles  and  octopus  and  finally  the  echmoderms,  ** 
such  as  star-fish,  sea-urchins  and  related  forms. 
Not  even  the  most  daring  anatomical  speculation 
can  accomplish  the  miracle  of  deriving  any  one 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  these  three  classes  from  the  other,  and  it  is 
still  less  feasible  to  fit  the  vertebrates  into  any 
one  of  them.  It  would  be  impossible  to  develop 
an  Amphioxus  from  a  star-fish  or  an  octopus. 
Some  have  attempted  a  theoretical  line  of  descent 
from  crustaceans  to  fish,  but  only  by  means  of 
such  a  yawning  chasm  that  no  rational  investi- 
gator went  with  them.  The  difference  between 
these  things  is  too  great. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  remarkable  that  all 
those  groups  may  easily  be  traced  back,  each  by 
itself,  to  some  higher  worm.  It  is  true  that  the 
worm  type  to  which  the  line  of  crustaceans  and 
insects  attaches  itself  and  to  which,  for  instance, 
our  leeches  and  earth  worms  belong,  is  very  dif- 
ferent from  an  ascidian.  Evidently  there  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  individual  evolution  within 
the  higher  worm  type.  But  nevertheless  this 
picture  presents  a  great  deal  of  probability.  The 
higher  type  of  worm  branched  out  into  insects, 
mollusks,  echinoderms  and  vertebrates,  and  it  had 
four  possibilities  of  evolution,  among  which  only 
the  vertebrate  was  destined  to  win  the  crown — 
the  form  of  man.  But  this  entire  stage  of  worm 
life  proceeded  from  some  still  lower  worm  which 
would  therefore  represent  the  next  common  sta- 
tion of  all  worms,  and  with  them  all  men. 

116 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

If  we  now  try  to  get  a  conception  of  the  worm 
in  its  lowest  stage,  we  will  find  that  its  structure 
is  wonderfully  simple.     Imagine  for  a  moment 
that  one  limb  after  the  other,  one  organ  after 
another,  is  cut  away  from  a  man,  arms  and  legs, 
the  head,  the  spinal  cord,  the  blood  system,  all  the 
parts  and  organs  between  the  stomach  and  skin, 
and  that  nothing  remains  finally  but  this  skin  and 
a  stomach  fitting  it  closely.    Furthermore,  let  the"! 
(rectum  be  closed,  which  gave  to  the  higher  or-  | 
Jganized  worm  the  form  of  a  hose,  and  only  one  i 
( opening  remains  for  both  assimilation  and  excre-l 
tion. 

Now  such  animals  actually  exist  on  the  lowest 
plane  of  worm  life.  In  certain  jelly-fish,  there 
lives  a  little  parasite  named  Pemmatodiscus, 
which  is  literally  composed  of  nothing  but  skin 
and  digestive  tract.  There  is  also  another  animal 
in  our  'fresh  waters  which  is  a  little  above  this 
stage,  the  so-called  Hydra.  In  the  case  of  the 
Hydra,  its  lower  end  has  grown  fast  to  the  soil, 
while  its  mouth  is  surrounded  by  fine  tentacles, 
and  a  few  other  details  are  slightly  better  de- 
veloped. Might  it  be  possible  that  we  could  fol- 
low man  down  to  this  stage  ? 

We  sometimes  speak  of  a  man  who  consists 
only  of  "skin  and  bones."  Well,  that  would  still 

117 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

be  a  vertebrate  man.  But  now,  we  are  asked  to 
eliminate  also  the  backbone.  Man  is  to  consist 
only  of  skin  and  stomach.  These  two  organs  are 
now  supposed  to  contain  the  germs  of  everything 
which  is  later  on  developed  to  full  bloom  in  the 
human  body,  such  as  the  nerve  system,  the  blood 
system,  the  nutritive  system,  the  sexual  system, 
etc.  This  idea  has  seemed  rather  daring  to  some 
people,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  mere  consid- 
eration of  the  zoological  system  suggests  it. 
There  we  finally  likewise  arrive  at  the  Hydra 
by  going  from  complex  to  ever  simpler  forms. 
There  is  no  escape  from  this  logic,  if  we  venture 
at  all  into  this  vague  domain  of  circumstantial 
evidence.  If  we  do  this,  the  logical  line  of  re- 
search is  the  one  we  have  followed.  But  there  is 
still  another  one,  and  it  is  peculiar  that  it  leads 
to  exactly  the  same  result. 

We  have  not  mentioned  the  embryo  for  some 
time,  but  now  we  shall  ask  it  once  more  to  act 
as  a  witness. 

It  is  an  anatomical  possibility  which,  like  all 
such  extreme  speculations,  is  mainly  proven  by 
its  plausibility  that  another  group  of  genuine  in- 
vertebrates may  be  derived  from  such  skin-and- 
stomach  creatures  as  the  Hydra,  without  passing 
through  that  other  line  of  development  in  the 

118 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

evolution  of  worms.  I  speak  of  sponges,  higher 
polypi  and  jelly-fish.  These  would  form  a  definite 
circle,  and  all  higher  forms  above  the  skin-and- 
stomach  animals  of  the  lowest  class  would  be 
traceable  to  one  common  origin,  viz.,  this  skin- 
and-stomach  animal  itself.  But  now  we  recall 
that  law  which  so  frequently  reproduces  the  por- 
trait of  ancestors  in  the  formation  of  the  embryo. 
If  the  circumstantial  evidence  is  to  be  conclusive, 
then  the  embryonic  development  of  all  animals 
from  the  jelly-fish  to  the  vertebrate  ought  to  re- 
produce such  a  portrait,  representing  the  double 
cylinder  of  skin  and  stomach  with  one  single 
orifice,  a  prototype  of  Pemmatodiscus,  or  Hydra. 
Here  again  all  resistance  is  useless.  It  is  unde- 
niable that  such  embryonic  marks  reappear  in  all 
nooks  and  corners  of  the  higher  classes  of  ani- 
mals. Itjs  that  gfcge  whfct*  %rwi  ha*  Hp<?Jg- 
nated  as  Gastrula. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  find  anything  more 
different  than  a  coral,  a  higher  worm,  a  sea- 
urchin,  a  lobster,  or  a  snail  in  the  adult  stage. 
Nevertheless,  all  of  them  show  such  characteris- 
tic skin-and-stomach  larvae.  They  occur  in  many 
of  the  animals  named  and  become  more  frequent 
with  our  progress  in  the  direction  of  the  lower 
formation,  where  we  find  them  in  the  shape  of  a 

119 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

mere  cylindrical  embryo  consisting  of  skin,  stom- 
ach and  orifice,  and  swimming  about  freely.  In 
other  cases,  matters  are  not  quite  so  plain,  and 
we  meet  with  all  conceivable  variations.  But  we 
have  already  seen  that  the  biogenetic  law  never 
excludes  such  modifications.  The  essential  thing 
is  that  even  in  the  most  daring  deviations,  the 
relation  to  the  Gastrula  form  is  plainly  percepti- 
ble. In  cases  where  no  genuine  cylinder  is 
formed,  we  meet  at  least  two  layers  in  the  cell, 
which  are  intended  for  the  building  of  the  body, 
one  of  them  corresponding  to  the  intestinal  mem- 
brane of  the  genuine  Gastrula,  the  other  to  the 
external  skin. 

Nor  do  these  things  end  among  vertebrates. 
On  the  contrary,  the  ascidians  as  well  as  Am- 
phioxus  still  develop  a  typical  Gastrula,  a  freely 
swimming  "arch-tadpole,"  consisting  of  skin, 
stomach  and  orifice.  And  these  relations  remain 
plainly  perceptible  throughout  the  entire  course 
of  things,  even  in  the  embryonic  life  of  the  higher 
and  highest  vertebrates  up  to  a  man  and  includ- 
ing him.  We  speak  of  the  Gastrula  stage  also 
[among  mammals,  even  if  the  external  aspect  of 
'things  no  longer  very  closely  resembles  the  orig- 
inal picture,  but  requires  more  careful  investiga^ 
tion  to  complete  the  proof. 

120 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

It  is  now  thirty  years  since  Haeckel  first  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  this  continuous  and  persistent 
recurrence  of  the  Gastrula  embryo  among  higher 
animals  has  the  simple  meaning  that  all  animals 
from  the  jelly-fish  to  man  are  descended  from  a 
certain  archetype  far  down  to  the  lowest  root  of 
the  genealogical  tree,  which  through  all  its  life 
was  nothing  more  than  such  a  Gastrula.  How 
this  idea  was  derided  and  slandered  in  the  be- 
ginning! But  gradually  one  zoologist  after  an- 
other began  to  see  that  this  idea  of  a  Gastrula 
offered  an  excellent  means  of  practical  research 
in  the  process  of  evolution.  Finally  Haeckel's 
idea  penetrated  everywhere,  and  to-day  this  term, 
and  the  thing  it  stands  for,  are  matters  of  fact 
in  all  embryological  descriptions.  In  every  text- 
book we  read  of  the  Gastrula.  Especially  the 
Gastrula  formation  of  mammals  has  given  rise  to 
an  entire  literature,  and  writers  are  quite  at  home 
in  their  use  of  the  term  "gastrulation"  in  speak- 
ing of  monkeys  and  man. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  further  accept- 
ance of  Haeckel's  logical  conclusions  is  merely  a 
question  of  our  attitude  toward  natural  evolution 
in  general.  If  we  accept  it  as  probable  to  its  re- 
motest bounds,  then  we  have  no  better  and  clearer 
sketch  than  this:  In  the  early  dawn  of  animal 

121 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

life,  there  lived  creatures  of  a  simple  structure, 
such  as  that  of  the  present-day  Gastrula-larvae, 
or  that  of  Pemmatodiscus,  which  are  swimming 
about  freely  and  represent  creatures  that  persist 
all  their  lives  in  this  stage.  We  may  agree  with 
Haeckel  in  thinking  that  these  most  ancient  skin- 
and-stomach  animals,  for  which  Haeckel  has  pro- 
posed the  general  term  of  "Gastraea,"  at  a  very 
early  stage  tried  two  avenues  of  development. 
Some  attached  themselves  with  the  closed  end  of 
their  cylinders  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  and  thus 
developed  into  a  Hydra  form.  In  the  further  de- 
velopment of  this  type  followed  a  swarm  of  other 
sea  animals,  the  so-called  plant  and  flower  types, 
such  as  sponges,  corals,  etc.  But  another  group 
of  the  Gastrula  forms  adopted  the  creeping  mode 
of  life.  Their  bodies  gradually  approached  the 
form  of  a  symmetrical  cylinder.  This  would  be 
the  line  leading  to  genuine  worms  and  then 
through  vertebrates  to  man.  At  any  rate  we  have 
for  the  present  no  simpler  logical  conception  of 
the  road  which  we  traveled,  and  logic  is  indis- 
pensable so  long  as  we  are  dealing  with  circum- 
stantial evidence. 

And  now  only  one  more  short  chain  of  conclu- 
sions remains — the  last  glowing  mountain  top  in 
the  morning  light  of  our  line  of  vision,  before 
the  curtain  of  white  mist  is  drawn  across  it. 
122 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

Let  us  start  at  once  from  embryology,  which 
pointed  in  the  right  direction  in  our  quest  for  the 
preceding  stage. 

How  is  the  Gastrula  type  formed  ?  Let  us  sup- 
pose a  typical  case  in  which  the  Gastrula  is  still 
swimming  about  as  a  genuine  skin-and-stomach 
larva,  a  little  cylinder  with  an  orifice  at  one  end. 
This  little  cylinder  arises  before  our  eyes  by  a 
very  simple  process.  Its  starting  point  is  the 
fertilized  egg.  The  Gastrula-larva  is  composed 
of  many  little  building  stones  or  cells.  An  adult 
animal  may  consist  of  many  millions  of  cells. 
But  the  genuine  egg  from  which  the  development 
of  the  embryo  starts,  generally,  after  fertilization, 
consists  of  only  one  cell  and  never  more  than 
one.  *Just  as  surely  as  every  human  being  comes  X 
from  an  egg  which  is  attached  to  the  ovarium 
of  the  human  female  and  which  through  contact 
with  the  semen  of  a  human  male  becomes  fer- 
tilized, just  so  surely  this  same  human  being  alsox 
Becomes  out  of  one  single  cell. 

Now  between  this  single  egg  cell  and  the  multi- 
cellular  Gastrula  stage,  we  always  observe  the 
following  process,  which  occurs  with  iron  con- 
sistency: The  egg  splits  up  into  two  cells  by  a 
process  of  fission,  and  two  cells  become  four, 
eight,  etc.,  until  there  is  finally  a  lump  of  many 

123 


The  figures  on  these  two  cuts  represent  the  development  of  a 
uni-cellular  arche-type  and  of  a  multi-cellular  animal  which  pre- 
served the  simple  form  of  a  skin-and-stomach  type.  This  is  the 
idea  of  Haeckel  as  to  the  development  of  the  simplest  forms  of 
animal  life.  To  the  right,  we  see  the  way  in  which  a  coral- 
animal,  Monoxenia  Darurinii,  develops  from  the  egg-cell.  This 
cell  divides  into  two  cells,  then  into  four,  and  finally,  into  a 
lump  of  cells.  This  lump  develops  fine  bristles  on  its  exterior 
surface,  by  means  of  which  it  revolves  through  the  water.  At 
the  same  time  it  forms  a  hollow  in  its  center,  then  doubles  up 
tgainst  itself,  until  it  becomes  a  double-walled  (skin-and-stomach) 

124 


body,  a  Gastrula.  The  cuts  on  the  left  page  represent  the  de- 
velopment of  an  Amoeba,  a  unicellular  animal  which  remains  so 
all  its  life,  but  propagates  by  fission.  The  two  last  cuts  on  the 
left  page  show  an  animal  now  living  in  the  North  Sea,  Mago- 
sphaera  planula.  It  never  gets  beyond  this  stage,  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  hollow  ball  stage  of  the  corals.  The  last  cut  on 
the  left  page  shows  another  animal  now  living,  bisected.  It  is 
Peinmatodiscus  gastrulaceus.  Haeckel  regards  these  living  forms, 
Amoeba  Magosphaera,  and  Pemmatodiscus,  as  present-day  type* 
of  the  primeval  development  of  the  animal  world. 

135 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

cells.  In  the  center  of  this  lump  a  hollow  space 
is  formed,  and  a  closed  hollow  bladder  thus 
arises.  One  part  of  this  bladder  gradually  sinks 
inward,  and  its  cells  form  a  hollow,  which  be- 
comes deeper  and  deeper,  just  as  if  a  boy  were 
pressing  his  finger  into  a  perforated  rubber  ball. 
In  this  way  the  bladder  becomes  a  cup,  consist- 
ing of  two  cells  bent  against  one  another  and  wide 
open  toward  the  center.  The  cells  of  the  inner 
wall  become  stomach  cells,  and  those  of  the  outer 
wall  skin  cells,  the  opening  of  the  gap  is  the" 
mouth,  and  the  Gastrula  is  complete. 

This  process,  I  repeat,  is  typical  throughout, 
even  in  individuals,  where  the  Gastrula  itself  is 
no  longer  the  end  of  the  process.  The  play  of 
forces  always  begins  with  the  disintegration  of 
the  egg  cell  into  many  cells,  which  gradually 
gather  themselves  into  a  lump  like  a  mulberry. 
The  tendency  to  form  a  hollow  cylinder,  or  blad- 
der, always  exists  and  the  final  end  is  always  the, 
formation  of  the  genuine  Gastrula  stage,  or  of 
its  equivalent,  that  is  to  say,  a  double  stratifica- 
tion of  the  cells  by  a  primitive  arrangement  of 
the  simple  building  material  into  two  mem- 
branes. 

If  the  biogenetic  law  has  any  meaning  at  all, 
it  is  that  at  this  extreme  end  of  evolution  it  has 

126 


TB 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


reached  the  climax  of  its  consistency.  The  first 
throbs  of"  the  machine  are  still  the  same  among 
all  animals,  man  included.  What  can  that  mean  ? 

Haeckel  here  made  a  significant  suggestion. 
All  animals  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  come 
out  of  one  single  cell.  According  to  Haeckel, 
this  indicates  that  the  most  primitive  ancestor  of 
all  animals  consisted  all  his  lifetime  of  one  single 
cell.  It  requires  no  great  stretch  of  imagination 
to  conceive  such  a  uni-cellular  animal.  Even  in 
our  day  thousands  of  animal  species  are  living, 
every  individual  of  which  consists  of  one  single 
cell.  Why  should  not  such  creatures  have  lived 
at  the  time  when  all  evolution  began  on  the 
earth? 

Among  all  classes  of  animals,  the  embryonic 
development  begins  with  the  fission  of  the  one 
cell  into  many  cells.  This  is  exactly  the  way  in 
which  the  present  genuine  uni-cellular  creatures 
propagate  themselves.  Whenever  one  of  these 
uni-cellular  creatures  is  ready  to  propagate  itself, 
it  simply  splits  up  into  two,  four  or  twenty  pieces, 
as  the  case  may  be,  and  every  one  of  these  pieces 
in  its  turn  becomes  a  new  uni-cellular  individual. 
Haeckel  thinks  that  those  primitive  uni-cellular 
structures  follow  the  same  method,  propagated 
in  this  way.  But  occasionally  the  offspring  would 


127 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

cluster  together  and  form  the  first  larger  clumps 
of  cells.  We  know  many  uni-cellular  animals 
that  do  this  to-day.  These  clusters  of  to-day  are 
mere  aggregations  of  cells  without  any  attempt 
at  organization,  and  most  likely  the  primitive 
uni-cellular  clusters  were  likewise  mere  group 
aggregations.  But  gradually  these  cell  aggrega- 
tions of  primitive  times  entered  into  more  inti- 
mate social  relations.  They  developed  a  certain 
division  of  labor.  All  this  came  about  as  a  sim- 
ple consequence  of  natural  conditions. 

All  the  cells  in  the  cluster  wanted  to  eat,  each 
by  itself,  so  all  of  them  crowded  outward  when 
the  cluster  drifted  about  in  the  water.  In  con- 
sequence the  cluster  became  a  bubble,  since  all 
the  cells  arranged  themselves  on  the  surface  and 
left  the  interior  space  vacant.  This  process  at 
this  stage  is  still  very  well  illustrated  by  the  early 
example  of  the  Magosphaera.  Under  these  con- 
ditions, the  probability  was  nevertheless  that  all 
the  rations  obtained  by  the  various  cells  would 
not  be  equal.  The  hollow  bubble  drifted  through 
the  water,  or  it  gradually  developed  its  own  mo- 
tion by  the  combined  efforts  of  all  cells,  and  thus 
it  rolled  against  tlie  tide.  The  cells  on  the  up- 
stream side  then  obtained  most  of  the  food,  while 
the  juices  of  the  cells  passed  through  the  permea- 

128 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

ble  walls  of  the  individuals  into  the  other  cells 
clustered  closely  around  them  and  down  to  the 
other  pole  of  the  bubble,  so  that  all  of  them  were 
fed.  But  nevertheless  a  certain  part  of  this  lump 
of  cells  gradually  developed  a  capacity  for  spe- 
cial work  in  the  interest  of  the  entirety.  The 
other  cells  did  not  remain  inactive  during  this 
process.  Since  they  were  fed  without  being  com- 
pelled to  perform  the  work  of  actual  eating,  they 
devoted  themselves  much  more  actively  to  the 
movement  and  protection  of  the  whole.  The 
practical  result  was  that  the  devouring  cells  were 
gradually  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  protecting 
cells,  so  that  they  assumed  a  sheltered  position 
in  the  center  and  were  literally  under  the  shelter 
of  the  others.  At  the  same  time  they  had  to  re- 
main in  touch  with  the  food  that  drifted  down 
against  them  with  the  time.  So  they  bent  inward 
and  formed  a  pocket  by  rolling  themselves  inside 
all  the  other  cells,  just  like  an  inverted  glove. 

I  am  giving  simply  some  general  indications 
here,  in  order  to  suggest  the  way  in  which  this 
development  might  have  come  about.  Surely 
this,  or  some  other  method,  must  have  been  the 
cause  of  the  cuplike  form  of  uni-cellular  animals, 
with  the  devouring  cells,  or  stomach,  in  the  cen- 
ter and  the  skin  cells  in  the  periphery,  the  proto- 
type of  the  Gastraea. 

129 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

But  if  this  was  true  in  the  beginning  of  animal 
evolution  in  primitive  days,  it  applies  at  the  same 
time  to  man's  evolution.  It  was  also  his  first 
step:  from  a  uni-cellular  protozoon  to  the  first 
multi-cellular  skin-and-stomach  animal,  which 
stood  still  far  below  a  sea-anemone,  a  jelly-fish, 
an  earth-worm,  or  star-fish,  but  which  contained 
the  possibility  of  developing  into  anything,  so  to 
say,  into  an  Amphioxus,  a  shark,  a  newt,  a  duck- 
bill, a  primitive  monkey,  and,  finally,  into  man. 

Now,  if  man  is  contained  in  a  uni-cellular 
protozoon,  he  stands  at  the  same  time  at  the  very 
dawn  of  all  known  life.  For  not  only  animals, 
but  also  plants,  may  be  derived  from  such  living 
protozoa.  To  this  day  there  exist  such  uni-cellu- 
lar creatures  which  live  by  devouring  other  living 
creatures.  We  find  others  which  feed  directly 
on  inorganic  material,  which  eat,  so  to  say,  stones 
instead  of  meat  and  bread  like  the  others.  The 
one  type  contains  the  germ  of  the  animal,  the 
other  that  of  the  plant.  The  next  logical  thought 
will  naturally  be,  that  the  representatives  of  the 
plant  type  were  first  in  existence,  and  that  the 
animal  method  developed  as  a  secondary  type,  as 
a  sort  of  parasitism  at  the  expense  of  the  other 
type.  The  vegetable  organism  consumed  pure 
earth,  and  baked  out  of  it,  by  the  help  of  sun- 

130 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

light,  its  own  "bread"  or  nourishing  vegetable 
matter.  The  animal  type  developed  by  the  grad- 
ual rise  of  the  habit  among  some  individuals  of 
eating  up  their  mates  and  thus  assimilating 
"bread"  in  a  prepared  form.  Evidently  this  must 
have  happened  at  a  very  early  stage  among  the 
protozoa.  Later  on  the  vegetable  development 
went  its  own  independent  way.  The  animal  con- 
tinued to  use  the  plant  as  a  food,  with  occasional 
exceptions,  where  it  devoured  its  own  mates  as 
a  sort  of  third  alternative.  But  both  types  later 
proceeded  on  their  separate  roads.  The  more  in- 
timate details  of  plant  evolution  do  not  concern 
us  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  far  down  in  the 
scale  men  are  phylogenetically  related  also  to 
plants,  and  to  this  day  man  still  devours  them. 

There  remains  but  one  question.  Man  was 
contained  in  the  germ  in  the  very  simplest  forms 
of  primitive  life  on  earth.  Wherever  life  goes, 
there  he  follows,  down  to  the  very  atoms  of 
existence.  Is  there  perhaps  a  last  possibility  of 
deriving  all  life  from  "something  else"? 

I  must  discuss  this  question  a  little  more  in  de- 
tail. It  has  always  been  a  sort  of  parting  of  the 
ways  for  a  great  many  people  who  thought  about 
the  origin  of  the  human  race,  and  in  some  un- 
scientific circles  this  question  is  frequently  played 

131 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

as  a  last  trump  for  that  very  purpose.  We  may 
observe  and  note  the  fact  that  even  the  Darwinist 
mode  of  thought  at  this  point  permits  of  certain 
peculiar  inconsistencies  and  differences  among 
its  champions.  Men  who  are  standing  serenely 
on  the  ground  with  men  as  descended  from  ani- 
mals have  considerable  disagreement  at  this  last 
point  of  departure,  and  an  unbiased  discoverer 
cannot  help  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  in  mat- 
ters of  the  origin  of  life  itself  no  well  established 
theory  exists  for  the  time  being.  So  this  point 
is  constantly  exploited  as  an  open  field.  It  is 
admitted  that  up  to  this  point  the  arguments  and 
facts  are  in  favor  of  natural  evolution.  But 
henceforth  everything  is  considered  possible.  The 
first  life  may  have  been  "created";  in  other 
words,  it  may  have  arisen  without  any  adequate 
logical  reason.  Now  this  term  "create"  has  some- 
thing peculiar  about  it.  If  I  as  a  human  being 
"create"  anything,  there  is  always  an  adequate 
reason  for  it.  Everybody  knows  that  we  cannot 
stamp  armies  out  of  the  ground,  or  produce  a 
field  of  corn  by  waving  our  hands.  The  smallest 
boy  who  whittles  a  wooden  boat  knows  that  he 
needs  wood,  knife,  fingers  and  other  things  for 
that  purpose.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact  our  entire 
practical  life  is  permeated  by  this  conception  of 

138 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

cause"  and  effect,  of  the  inter-relation  of  the 
things  which  we  must  and  will  "create."  If  we 
apply  merely  this  current  conception  of  the  term 
"create"  to  the  evolution  of  man  and  of  life  it- 
self, a  little  clear,  thinking  will  show  that  it  co- 
incides perfectly  with  the  course  of  natural  de- 
velopment of  things  from  stage  to  stage.  If  we 
conceive  of  the  fundamental  forces  of  nature  as 
something  which  can  "create"  things  in  the  way 
that  we  do,  thus  creating  finally  man  himself,  we 
cannot  admit  from  our  own  experience  any  other 
possibility  for  the  creation  of  things  than  a  simple 
and  gradual  procession  leading  step  by  step 
through  the  path  of  natural  inter-relation.  The 
most  consistent  form  of  Darwinism  and  this  sort 
of  creation  do  not  exclude  one  another  in  any 
way ;  they  rather  coincide  completely  during  the 
entire  portion  of  the  process.  Evolution  so  con- 
ceived is  merely  a  logical  line  of  creation,  and 
it  is  the  immanent' logical  method  of  creation. 

But  the  champions  of  the  idea  that  the  so-called 
first  beginning  of  life  is  the  end  of  Darwinism 
and  the  starting  point  of  creation,  do  not  apply 
these  terms  in  the  sense  just  explained.  They 
are  thinking  of  a  creation  for  which  we  have  not 
the  least  proof  nor  experience,  and  for  which 
civilized  mankind  has  no  explanation  except  that 

133 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  witchery,  that  is  to  say,  an  origin  of  things 
without  any  causal  connection,  without  any  prem- 
ise, without  adequate  reason.  Life  is  supposed 
to  have  arisen  in  its  most  primitive  form  by  a 
miracle.  There  are  a  great  number  of  people 
who  fancy  that  they  have  rescued  their  entire 
world-philosophy  by  asserting  a  miracle  at  this 
one  point.  But  most  of  them  are  of  the  opinion 
that  they  cannot  accept  the  idea  of  evolution,  and 
the  animal  descent  of  man  from  a  protozoon,  un- 
less we  admit  a  second  miracle  further  up  in  the 
scale.  Just  as  the  first  life  cell  at  the  lowest  end 
of  evolution  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  miracle 
without  cause,  so  the  first  genuine  rise  of  con- 
sciousness, far  at  the  top,  in  the  first  genuine 
human  being,  is  explained  by  a  miracle,  regard- 
less of  any  logical  connection  with  the  process  of 
evolution.  However,  this  last  speculation  is  ac- 
tually superfluous,  even  from  the  standpoint  of 
those  who  champion  it. 

In  my  opinion,  the  fundamental  facts  of  con- 
sciousness are  found  in  every  simple  sensation.  I 
feel  this  or  that  impression,  light  or  dark,  pleasure 
or  pain ;  that,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  simplest  form 
of  "becoming  conscious  of  anything,"  and  this 
simplest  form  of  sensation  was  doubtless  pos- 
sessed by  the  most  primitive  living  cell.  We  may 

134 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

observe  it  in  the  very  lowest  forms  of  life. 
Moreover,  modern  scientific  research  cannot  dis- 
pense with  it  as  an  inseparable  quality  of  every- 
thing to  which  we  apply  the  term  "life."  Of 
course,  a  uni-cellular  protozoon,  a  radiolarian  or 
an  amoeba,  does  not  reflect  any  stimuli  in  the 
same  way  that  the  infinitely  more  perfected  and 
sensitive  thought  apparatus  of  human  conscious- 
ness does.  But  these  first  animals  nevertheless 
have  the  basic  element,  of  this  reaction  in  their 
simplest  sensation,  such  as  avoiding  light  or 
twitching  at  a  touch.  Such  an  animal  feels  itself 
directly  as  an  "I,"  if  not  consciously  reflecting, 
then  at  least  intuitively.  The  differentiation  of 
sensations  throughout  the  scale  up  to  man  is 
merely  a  question  of  an  infinite  chain  of  develop- 
ment without  any  interruption.  But  if  it  be  as- 
sumed that  the  life  of  a  protozoon,  or  an  amoeba, 
was  created  by  a  miracle,  then  this  same  miracle 
simultaneously  created  consciousness,  and  all  the 
rest  could  be  left  to  the  operation  of  the  laws  of 
transformism. 

The  question  is  only  whether  we  must  admit 
such  a  miracle  even  at  this  very  first  point  of  de- 
parture, were  it  only  as-  a  logical  help,  as  a  Ijv,- 
pothesis  *even  acceptable  to  the  inductive  method 
of  scientific  Darwinism  and  natural  history.  So 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

far  as  I  am  personally  concerned,  I  wish  to  em- 
phasize that  I  have  endeavored  most  earnestly  for 
many  years  to  arrive  at  an  unbiased  opinion  on 
this  question.  I  have  asked  myself  again  and 
again  whether  it  could  not  be  possible  to  meet 
our  antagonists  half  way  at  this  point,  and  thus 
do  away  with  an  unspeakably  painful  strife 
which  is  disturbing  the  work  of  civilization  at  the 
present  time,  and  at  the  same  time  to  reconcile 
two  parties  which  have,  each  of  them,  a  great 
number  of  worthy  and  absolutely  honest  repre- 
sentatives, who  long  for  an  understanding  of  the 
riddles  of  life.  I  am  compelled  to  admit  frankly 
that  the  result  of  all  my  deliberations  has  inevita- 
bly led  to  the  same  inexorable  conclusion.  The 
answer  was  always  a  determined  "No."  And 
it  cannot  be  otherwise.  Whoever  is  convinced  of 
the  causal  and  natural  evolution  of  man  from 
uni-cellular  protozoa,  cannot  reconcile  his  logic 
with  a  change  of  method  in  explaining  the  exist- 
ence of  these  primitive  protozoa.  He  cannot  at 
(this  point  drop  the  principle  of  causal  inter-rela- 
[tion  on  the  chance  of  exchanging  it  for  the  prin^ 
ipple  of  miracles. 

Our  logical  thought,  which  is  itself  based  on 
the  principle  of  cause  and  effect,  would  have  to 
demand  in  that  case  the  same  miracle  for  its  own 

136 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

method  of  thought ;  it  would  have  to  do  so  to-day 
in  myself  and  in  every  other  student  of  nature. 
But  this  miracle  never  appears  to-day,  and  so  it 
must  have  been  at  the  very  beginning  of  things. 
The  miracle  failed  to  materialize  then  as  it  does 
now. 

The  situation  is  by  no  means  so  hopeless  as  the 
champions  of  miracles  frequently  represent  it.  All 
attempts  at  other  logical  explanations  do  not  fail 
by  any  means  at  this  point.  There  are  quite  a 
number  of  probabilities,  none  of  them  in  any  way 
miraculous,  which  we  might  discuss  before  we 
come  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  primitive 
protozoa.  These  possibilities  may  contradict  one 
another  and  exclude  one  another,  but  they  are 
nevertheless  there,  and  most  of  them  furnish  a 
fairly  firm  support  which  we  cannot  pass  by  in 
silence. 

It  has  been  said  that  historical  life  certainly 
did  not  put  in  its  first  appearance  on  the  earth 
at  the  point  where  to-day  the  most  ancient  fossil 
remains  are  found.  It  must  have  existed  millions 
of  years  before  that  time,  in  order  to  arrive  at  the 
stage  of  development  which  meets  us  in  these 
first  fossils.  Now  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  us 
from  extending  the  term  of  evolution  infinitely, — 
so  far  into  the  past  that  we  arrive  at  a  concept 

137 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

which  human  beings  are  in  the  habit  of  calling 
"eternity."  The  earth,  which  was  present  in  that 
eternity,  could  very  well  have  harbored  from 
time  immemorial  the  lowest  forms  of  life,  for  in- 
stance, uni-cellular  amoebae  or  bacilli  or  the 
earliest  plant  cells. 

These  primitive  types  reflect  the  result  of  some 
special  stimuli  which  were  due  to  the  development 
of  that  time,  and  these  types  were  then  started 
into  a  course  of  higher  evolution  leading  up  to 
man.  This  theory  is  logical  and  perfectly  sound. 
The  living  arch-cell  in  that  case  is  simply  an 
eternal  form  on  this  globe,  and  we  may  use  these 
terms  in  the  same  way  in  which  every  student  of 
physics  speaks  of  heat  as  an  eternal  form  of  uni- 
versal force. 

However,  this  idea  is  combated  by  an  argu- 
ment taken  purely  from  a  universally  accepted 
conception  of  geologists  as  to  certain  primitive 
historical  evidence  in  the  formation  of  the  entire 
earth.  There  are  certain  valid  reasons  which 
speak  in  favor  of  the  probability  that  this  globe 
was  an  enormously  hot  and  glowing  body,  such 
as  the  sun  is  even  now,  and  .contained  all  of  its 
substances  in  a  state  of  white  heat  or  gas.  Many 
of  the  reasons  on  which  this  conception  is  based 
have  been  found  to  be  open  to  attack.  But  most 

138 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  them  still  persist  and  are  regarded  as  sound, 
and  we  have  to-day  only  a  very  small  number  of 
genuine  experts  in  geology  who  do  not  accept  the 
theory  of  a  sunlike  stage  of  the  earth. 

This  conception  changes  our  picture  of  life 
processes.  Life  may  be  extended  many  millions 
of  years  beyond  the  time  of  the  most  primitive 
fossils.  But  finally  there  comes  a  time  where  the 
earth  is  a  glowing  ball  of  the  temperaure  of  the 
sun,  which  transforms  all  metals  into  a  hot  gas 
and  in  which  no  amoeba  can  live  or  has  ever 
lived.  There  are  plants  which  live  in  hot  springs 
and  can  stand  a  temperature  of  100  degrees  C., 
and  dry  spores  or  bacilli  can  endure  a  still  higher 
temperature  without  perishing.  But  it  is  an  ab- 
solutely impossible  idea  that  an  amoeba  could  still 
live  in  a  world  where  even  water  cannot  exist 
and  where  the  heat  keeps  all  elements  perma- 
nently in  a  gaseous  state,  even  iron.  It  is  not 
until  the  globe  has  cooled  sufficiently  in  ice-cold 
space  to  acquire  a  solid  crust  that  the  first  pre- 
cipitations of  water  with  living  beings  of  the 
simplest  form  are  visible  upon  it.  But  even  this 
state  of  affairs  does  not  in  any  way  justify  the 
assumption  of  a  miracle.  There  are  two  other 
possibilities  which  may  be  explained  out  of  na- 
tural and  logical  conditions  of  existence  on  that 
globe. 

139 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

Some  might  ask  at  this  point  whether  the  most 
1  primitive  and  simple  forms  of  life  may  not  have 
(immigrated  and  settled  on  the  cooled  globe.  We 
know  that  small  and  large  parts  of  matter  are 
continually  falling  out  of  space  upon  the  earth, 
the  so-called  meteorites.  Might  not  the  germs  of 
life  fall  likewise  upon  our  planet  in  the  same 
way  ?  The  simplest  spores  of  bacilli,  such  as  are 
perpetually  whirling  through  the  air,  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  carry  the  germs  of  life  for  all 
stages  of  evolution  up  to  man  on  the  surface  of 
the  globe.  The  spores  *of  such  bacilli  endure  a 
.  cold  temperature  of  more  than  200  degrees  C. 
The  temperature  of  space  will  certainly  not  be 
much  lower  than  that,  and  the  bacilli  of  this  kind 
also  can  get  along  for  a  long  time  without  any 
air,  so  that  the  space  without  any  air  between 
the  different  planets  and  suns  would  not  be  an  ob- 
stacle to  the  transmission  of  living  spores  of 
bacilli.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  fall  back  on 
the  assumption  that  a  meteorite,  which  by  the 
way  is  generally  ignited  by  the  friction  of  the 
earth's  atmosphere,  must  have  carried  the  germs 
of  life.  The  earth's  atmosphere  may  have  been 
"infected"  directly  by  floating  germs.  Such  a 
conception  leads  finally  to  the  idea  of  "eternity" 
of  the  lowest  forms  of  life.  It  would  be  very  easy 

140 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

to.  imagine  that  certain  spores  of  the  simplest  liv- 
ing matter  are  distributed  throughout  space  from 
all  "eternity,"  the  same  as  the  dust  of  iron  and 
other  elementary  substances.  These  germs,  held 
in  a  sleeping  state  so  long  as  they  are  drifting  in 
the  cold  atmosphere  far  away  from  air  and  water, 
would  wake  to  genuine  life  and  develop  to  a 
higher  form  as  soon  as  a  sufficiently  cooled  world 
body  should  offer  them  air  and  water.  But  who 
is  going  to  determine  by  means  of  our  limited  in- 
struments and  the  present  imperfect  state  of  our 
knowledge  of  bacilli,  the  origin  of  every  one  of 
the  myriad  spores  which  are  floating  round  us 
everywhere?  However,  we  are  not  at  all  com- 
pelled to  accept  this  one  hypothesis  in  order  to 
rescue  our  idea  of  causality.  There  is  a  second 
and  better  explanation  which  has  always  had 
some  champions,  but  would  have  had  still  many 
more  if  it  had  always  been  put  in  such  a  form  as 
is  required  in  order  to  meet  all  crude  objec- 
tions. 

It  has  been  said  that  life  developed  at  a  cer- 
tain period,  when  the  conditions  for  its  rise 
existed,  and  developed  out  of  the  so-called  in- 
organic dead  matter  in  the  same  way  in  which  a 
certain  chemical  combination,  say  water  out  of 
oxygen  and  hydrogen,  or  crystals,  arise  under 

141 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

given  conditions.  This  conception  stated  in  this 
bare  form  is  startlingly  simple.  There  were 
enough  inorganic  substances  on  this  planet,  even 
though  in  a  state  of  white  heat.  Whenever  a 
planet  cooled,  all  these  substances  passed  through 
certain  stages  of  development.  Water,  for  in- 
stance, then  became  an  inevitable  product  of  evo- 
lution. Why  'should  not  life  be  another  product, 
like  water,  which  developed  also  at  that  stage 
from  so-called  dead  matter?  Many  very  clear 
and  circumspect  brains  have  been  satisfied  with 
this  simple  formulation  of  the  theory  of  life,  and 
welcomed  it  as  a  perfectly  rational  solution. 
While  in  our  present  historical  period  life  comes 
only  from  life  so  far  as  we  know,  it  was  assumed 
that  in  those  primitive  days  the  first  life  rose  out 
of  inorganic  matter,  and  this  was  called  "sggn,- 
taneous  generation."  And  it  was  generally  con- 
sidered an  open  question  whether  such  "spon- 
taneous generation"  took  place  only  in  the  begin- 
ning, or  whether  it  may  have  taken  place  in 
subsequent  ages,  occasionally  even  to-day,  along 
with  the  normal  mode  of  generation,  at  least 
among  the  very  lowest  animated  beings,  though 
it  has  never  been  observed.  Now  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  this  mode  of  solving  the  riddle  is 
neither  a  serious  nor  a  convincing  one.  It  is  in- 

'  142 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

deed  simple,  but  so  is  the  solution  of  the  Gordian 
knot  which,  according  to  the  legend,  was  not 
solved  by  a  clear  grasp  of  the  question,  but  by 
a  blow  of  the  sword.  The  idea  of  evolution  re- 
quires that  the  thing  which  develops  must  ex- 
plain the  cause  of  its  development  by  another 
thing  out  of  which  it  developed.  There  must  be 
as  close  a  relation  between  these  two  things  as 
there  is  between  father  and  son,  a  deep-seated 
and  intimate  likeness  combined  with  an  assump- 
tion of  differentiation  through  progress.  Such  a 
relationship  and  likeness  exist  between  certain 
chemical  and  physical  qualities  and  parts  of  the 
living  amoeba,  and  such  simple  chemical  combin- 
ations of  so-called  inorganic  substances,  as  water, 
air  and  the  like.  But  there  is  no  such  likeness 
in  regard  to  the  most  characteristic  mark  of  an 
amoeba,  that  is  to  say,  subjective  feeling,  which 
is  completely  missing  in  purely  chemical  reac- 
tions. Here,  we  have  the  old  and  always  relia- 
ble philosophical  axiom  that  "sensation"  cannot 
be  derived  from  mere  "motion."  It  is  true  that 
the  field  of  sensation  likewise  is  strictly  under  the 
control  of  the  law  of  causation  and  does  not  ad- 
mit of  any  "miracles."  But,  for  this  very  reason 
•it  is  never  possible  to  derive  a  process  of  sensa- 
tion from  so  totally  different  a  thing  as  a  process 

143 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

of  motion  in  physics  and  chemistry.  In  the  chain 
of  cause  and  effect,  feeling  is  only  followed  by 
feeling  and  motion  by  motion.  The  place  of  a 
link  in  one  series  is  never  taken  by  a  member  of 
the  other  series.  The  attempt  to  substantiate 
this  statement  in  detail  would  lead  too  far  away 
from  our  subject.  Suffice  it  to  indicate  that  the 
distinction  between  feeling  and  motion  must  be  a 
fundamental  demand  of  every  refined  and  work- 
able theory  of  understanding.  And  an  ignoring 
of  this  demand  would  carry  us  into  a  fatal  laby- 
rinth of  ideas.  It  may  seem  at  the  first  glance 
that  this  statement  kills  the  idea  of  "spontaneous 
generation"  with  one  blow.  But  this  is  by  no 
means  the  case. 

It  hits  merely  the  crude  conception  of  it.  In 
order  to  give  it  a  more  refined  and  impregnable 
form,  it  is  necessary  to  extend  somewhat  our 
definition  of  the  "inorganic,"  that  is  to  say,  of 
nature  below  the  first  living  cell.  We  may  then 
maintain  our  hypothesis  that  the  first  cell,  the  first 
genuine  living  being,  arose  on  this  earth  through 
natural  development,  when  the  surface  of  the 
globe  had  cooled  to  a  certain  temperature,  and  it 
originated  out  of  the  so-called  inorganic  sub- 
stances of  the  earth  which  had  long  been  pres- 
ent. We  have  only  to  add  that  these  substances 

144 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 


A   HUMAN  OVUM, 

bisected   and   strongly   magnified.      Its   actual   size   is   that  of  a 
dot  barely  visible  to  the  naked  eye.     This  ovum,  when  detached 

from   the    female    ovarium,    represents    a   genuine    "  cell."  It    is 

surrounded    by    a    membrane,    which    is    penetrated    by    the  male 

sperm-cell    in    the    act    of    fertilization.      The   soft    interior  mass 
contains  a  large  "  nucleus." 


145 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

had  not  formed  any  genuine  living  cell  up  to  that 
time,  but  they  nevertheless  possessed  in  them- 
selves the  requirements  for  the  generation  of  such 
a  cell  at  a  favorable  temperature.  And  we  must 
add,  furthermore,  that  these  substances  pos- 
sessed not  only  the  chemical  and  physical  ele- 
ments of  matter  and  motion  out  of  which  the 
special  structure  of  the  cell  could  rise  under  given 
conditions,  they  also  had  a  general  basic  element 
of  feeling  out  of  which  the  same  life  of  the  cell 
could  be  built.  In  other  words,  we  must  start 
from  the  simple  assumption  that,  in  some  way, 
feeling  is  a  basic  property  of  all  matter  in  the 
universe,  including  all  inorganic  substances.  This 
fundamental  quality  is  not  affected  by  any  degree 
of  temperature,  nor  dependent  upon  it.  A  large 
number  of  the  clearest  thinkers  in  this  field  have 
arrived  at  this  idea  by  various  roads  and  have 
admitted  it  frankly.  Among  modern  scientists, 
I  mention  only  Fechner  and  Haeckel. 

Haeckel,  who  has  championed  and  popularized 
this  idea  of  "spontaneous  generation"  more  ener- 
getically than  any  other  man,  has  at  the  same 
time  incessantly  emphasized  in  various  parts  of 
his  works  that  he  considers  primitive  feeling  as 
an  essential  and  fundamental  quality  of  all  matter 
in  the  universe.  If  this  is  understood,  we  shall 

146 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

have  no  further  difficulty  in  accepting  the  idea  of 
the  natural  evolution  of  life  on  the  surface  of 
this  globe.  In  this  case  life  would  simply  repre- 
sent one  point  of  aggregation,  a  focus  of  that  one 
faculty  of  nature,  "feeling."  It  would  simply 
be  a  product  of  concentration,  much  as  the  forma- 
tion of  the  entire  sun  or  earth  represents  a  prod- 
uct of  concentration  of  another  faculty,  gravita- 
tion. This  product  of  concentration  may  have 
had  its  own  peculiar  chain  of  causation.  Consid- 
ering that  we  have  found  life  only  in  connection 
with  definite  chemical  conditions  which  do  not 
admit  of  any  white  heat,  there  is  nothing  to  pre- 
vent us  from  assuming  that  its  own  laws  of  evo- 
lution could  not  arise  until  the  primitive  heat  of 
the  globe  had  been  mitigated. 

Let  us  also  mention  at  this  point  that  Fechner 
and  more  precisely  Preyer,  also  considered  the 
possibility  that  the  cell  life  known  to  us  might 
represent  merely  a  product  of  adaptation  to  a 
cooler  atmosphere,  while  the  concentration  of 
feeling  in  the  primitive  atmosphere  of  the  sun 
was  conditioned  on  another  chemical  form  of 
adaptation  useful  in  that  other  environment.  But 
in  principle  all  this  is  immaterial,  and  we  aprjly 
the  term  "life"  only  to  cell  life  between  the  stages 
of  the  amoeba  and  man.  This  life,  at  all  events, 

147 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

did  not  arise  until  the  earth  had  passed  the  stage 
of  red  heat.  This  would  be  the  historical  stage 
at  which  the  conditions  became  favorable  for  the 
much  discussed  "spontaneous  generation." 

It  was  necessary  to  touch  upon  this  rather  dif- 
ficult line  of  thought  at  least  to  this  extent,  be- 
cause the  confusion  which  reigns  in  this  regard 
is  very  general  and  fatal.  No  one  can  be  obliged 
at  present  to  champion  any  one  of  all  these 
theories.  But  one  thing  at  least  must  be  ad- 
mitted, we  are  not  in  such  need  of  ideas  for  a 
natural  explanation  of  life  that  we  are  absolutely 
compelled  to  seek  refuge  in  miracles.  Of  course, 
while  we  are  still  in  the  field  of  the  "natural," 
we  must  also  admit  frankly  on  the  other  hand 
that  our  actual  knowledge  of  the  fundamental 
problems  of  life  is  still  so  incomplete  at  this  day 
that  it  is  well  to  pursue  our  studies  along  many 
different  roads.  It  is  quite  probable  that  in  our 
further  research  along  this  line,  we  shall  meet 
many  surprises  and  find  many  new  theories,  for 
we  know  very  little  of  the  internal  processes  that 
take  place  even  in  the  simplest  cell.  There  is 
still  a  world  before  us  which  we  have  barely 
touched.  But  not  all  riddles  lie  concealed  on  the 
side  of  life.  We  are  also  far  from  seeing  clearly 
into  inorganic  problems,  all  declarations  to  the 

148 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

contrary  notwithstanding.  The  simplest  proc- 
esses of  crystalline  formation,  in  which  by  some 
internal  means  definite  individual  forms  are  pro- 
duced, are  still  as  dark  to  us,  so  far  as  their 
causes  and  inter-relations  are  concerned,  as  the 
nature  and  origin  of  the  living  cell.  The  simple 
mechanical  process  of  attraction  and  repulsion 
is  still  as  unknown  to  us  as  the  simple  funda- 
mental process  of  feeling.  If  we  deliver  man  at 
the  boundary  of  primitive  life  on  earth  into  the 
hands  of  these  mysteries,  we  are  merely  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  we  have  taken  him  back  to  the 
limits  of  our  present  perceptive  powers.  Beyond 
that  limit  we  do  not  venture.  We  simply  main- 
tain that  the  law  of  causation  is  not  interrupted 
at  that  boundary,  and  we  agree  with  the  astrono- 
mer, who  does  not  doubt  that  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation is  still  in  force  even  in  those  places,  which 
he  cannot  reach  with  his  eyesight  or  his  instru- 
ments. 

There  is  still  another  thing  which  is  intimately 
connected  with  the  condition  of  our  present 
knowledge  concerning  the  origin  of  life.  To  un- 
derstand quite  logically  at  present  all  the  laws  of 
evolution  of  this  life  involves  an  understanding 
of  the  first  problem.  We  have  watched  the  dis- 
guises through  many  different  forms  of  animals 

149 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

which  man  assumed  in  the  course  of  his  develop- 
ment. These  animal  forms  become  ever  more  im- 
perfect, ever  more  simple,  until  they  reach  the 
uni-cellular  protozoon.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
we  have  watched  the  general  course  of  a  grand 
upward  evolution,  the  highest  and  most  central 
branch  of  which  is  topped  by  man  himself.  But 
now  we  should  naturally  like  to  know  what  was 
the  compelling  motive  of  this  development. 
What  controlled  and  determined  the  laws  of 
growth  and  development?  Why  did  not  the  first 
cell  remain  a  primitive  cell  ?  Why  did  it  not  con- 
tinue to  generate  nothing  but  primitive  cells  in 
all  the  millions  of  years?  Why  did  some  of  its 
offspring  rise  higher  and  higher,  up  to  the  tri- 
umphant summit  of  mankind?  These  questions 
are  certainly  natural,  and  they  are  the  object  of  a 
large  part  of  that  scientific  research  to  which  we 
apply  the  general  term  of  Darwinism. 

However,  this  is  another  problem.  We  may 
submit  the  course  of  evidence  which  I  have  out- 
lined from  man  to  amoeba  and  may  still  believe 
that  we  do  not  know  anything  definite  about  the 
compelling  motive  of  this  development.  We  may 
calmly  say  that  we  know  too  little  of  the  origin 
and  fundamental  laws  of  life  and  cannot  com- 
mand at  present  an  understanding  of  the  laws 

150 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

controlling  the  development  of  life  by  studying 
them  directly.  We  may  be  content  to  watch  the 
finished  work  of  those  laws,  the  uninterrupted 
chain  from  amoeba  to  man. 

If  there  is  one  who  does  not  care  to  go  so  far 
with  us,  he  will  at  least  emphasize  that  all  our 
theories  of  the  nature  of  these  laws  must  neces- 
sarily be  loose,  changeable  and  capable  of  im- 
provement in  view  of  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge.  It  is  true  that  this  is  frequently 
overlooked.  We  often  hear  it  said  that  Darwin- 
ism is  on  the  decline.  It  is  claimed  that  Dar- 
winism is  dissolving  and  disintegrating  into  a 
wild  confusion  of  different  opinions  among  the 
experts,  and  that  not  a  stone  of  the  original  build- 
ing of  the  principle  of  Darwinism  will  remain  in 
the  near  future.  But  this  is  sheer  nonsense,  so 
far  as  that  line  of  facts  is  concerned,  which  we 
have  presented  in  this  work,  that  line  which  con- 
nects all  living  beings  by  one  common  descent 
and  locates  man  himself  on  this  genealogical  tree. 
These  facts  are  daily  becoming  more  impregnable 
and  firm,  and  we  may  calmly  spread  them  among 
the  people  as  a  secure  acquirement  of  scientific 
research.  But  it  is  true,  and  not  at  all  a  matter 
for  surprise  from  the  standpoint  of  the  theory 
of  evolution,  that  there  Is  a  great  difference  of 

151 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  the  active  principle 
of  development.  The  general  mistake  of  con- 
founding this  special  field  of  research  with  the 
whole  of  Darwinism  may  perhaps  be  pardonable 
when  we  remember  that  Darwin  himself  has 
speculated  a  great  deal  about  these  "laws/"'  and 
whoever  wishes  to  write  on  these  things,  to  dis- 
cuss them,  either  for  or  against  Darwinism,  and 
instruct  others  about  them,  should  at  least  be 
sufficiently  trained  in  scientific  thought  to  dis- 
tinguish between  these  two  departments  of 
science. 

Darwin  tried  in  his  time  to  give  us  a  clear 
formulation  of  the  laws  of  evolution,  by  which 
he  did  not  attempt  to  prove  that  all  living  beings 
developed  out  of  one  another,  but  why  they  did. 
If  this  formulation  is  true,  it  is  a  matter  of 
course  that  it  would  also  comprise  man  and  show 
us  why  he  had  to  develop. 

Darwin's  theory  is  based  on  the  following  line 
of  thought.  Here  we  have  a  simple,  primitive 
animal  form.  It  is  so  far  adapted  to  external 
conditions  and  has  developed  such  faculties  that 
it  can  exist,  maintain  itself,  and  propagate  its 
kind.  But  now  a  long  space  of  time  elapses. 
We  then  find  in  place  of  this  animal  form  a  new 
one,  which  is  much  better  adapted  to  the  same 

152 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

conditions.  Or,  again,  these  conditions  have  also 
changed  in  the  meantime,  and  we  observe  to 
our  surprise  a  new  animal  form,  which  is  still 
in  many  points  like  the  old  one,  but  also  adapted 
to  the  new  conditions.  What  has  happened? 
This  sketch,  according  to  Darwin,  represents  in 
principle  the  entire  evolution.  The  conception 
of  better  "adaptation"  includes  also  mental  prog- 
ress, brain  evolution,  and  in  this  way  a  road 
leading  from  amoeba  up  to  man  produces  the 
entire  line  of  descent  which  we  have  been  trac- 
ing. To  explain  this  line  of  march  would  be 
equivalent  to  explaining  the  steps  from  an  amoeba 
to  a  man.  And  Darwin  attempts  this  explana- 
tion. 

The  first  archetype  propagated  its  kind.  This 
offspring  consisted  of  individuals  which,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  were  not  entirely  alike.  They 
were  all  individuals,  differing  more  or  less,  just 
as  the  children  of  some  parents  differ  among 
human  beings,  just  as  the  offspring  of  plants 
differ,  and  just  as  a  brood  of  rabbits  have  dif- 
ferent colors.  These  variations  represented 
either  an  advance  or  a  retreat  compared  to  the 
characters  of  the  archetype.  Some  of  the  off- 
spring were  superior  to  their  parents,  others 
were  average  individuals,  and  still  others  were 

153 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

inferior.  Now  these  individuals  entered  into 
competition  with  one  another  for  the  means  of 
life  and  into  a  struggle  against  the  conditions 
surrounding  them.  In  other  words,  they  entered 
into  the  "struggle  for  existence."  The  result  of 
this  struggle  was  different  for  different  in- 
dividuals. The  superior  type,  which  were  best 
adapted  or  adaptable  to  their  environment,  suc- 
ceeded best  in  propagating  their  kind  and  in  sur- 
viving in  the  greatest  number,  while  the  average 
type  and  those  inferior  to  it  succumbed.  In  this 
way,  only  the  superior  breed  survived  and  propa- 
gated its  kind.  The  offspring  of  this  superior 
type  were  in  their  turn  subjected  to  the  struggle 
for  existence.  A  selection  of  the  fittest  operated 
on  them  as  it  did  on  their  predecessors.  This 
continued  uninterruptedly.  In  the  course  of  the 
various  generations,  continuous  improvement,  an 
up-breeding  of  the  type,  and  a  more  and  more 
perfect  adaptation  as  well  as  fitness  to  survive, 
naturally  resulted.  Furthermore,  there  was  an- 
other possibility  which  must  be  considered.  A 
change  took  place  in  the  external  conditions,  sud- 
denly requiring  of  the  living  beings  an  entirely 
new  adaptation.  In  that  case,  it  was  not  the 
superior  type  developing  along  the  line  of  the 
improvement  of  the  parent  type  which  had  the 


154 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

advantage,  but  certain  individuals  which  departed 
most  widely  from  the  parent  form  in  a  certain 
direction  corresponding  most  nearly  to  the  new 
requirements.  Take  it,  for  instance,  that  the 
climate  changed.  A  plain  formerly  covered  with 
a  brownish  mould  was  suddenly  and  permanently 
covered  with  snow.  The  brown  plain  had  been 
inhabited  by  brown  rabbits.  Up  to  the  time  of 
this  sudden  change  it  was  always  those  individ- 
uals of  the  offspring  which  most  closely  re- 
sembled in  color  the  tint  of  this  plain  that  sur- 
vived in  the  struggle  for  existence;  for  brown 
coincided  with  brown  and  was  not  easily  detected 
by  the  enemies  of  the  rabbits.  But  now  white 
suddenly  became  the  best  adapted  color.  Hence- 
forth those  rabbits  had  the  greatest  chance  to 
survive  which  happened  to  be  white  as  a  result 
of  individual  variation.  These  were  now  pre- 
served, they  propagated  their  kind  and  left  be- 
hind them  a  growing  number  of  young,  which 
continued  to  marry  white  with  white.  In  the 
course  of  years  the  entire  rabbit  nation  became 
white — an  adaptation  to  snow. 

This  logic  of  Darwin's  seems  irresistible  so 
long  as  we  admit  that  individual  variations  al- 
ways offer  sufficient  material  for  selection — in 
other  words,  that  there  were  always  a  sufficient 

155 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

number  of  individuals  following  by  natural  selec- 
tion a  line  of  development  improving  the  arche- 
type; and,  furthermore,  also  a  number  of  other 
individuals  varying  according  to  special  adapta- 
tion. 

Once  this  assumption  is  granted,  all  the  rest 
is  merely  a  mathematical  problem,  the  mill  of 
evolution  being  forced  to  grind.  But  the  ques- 
tion of  superior  characters  and  individual  varia- 
tions contains  many  deeper  problems,  as  Darwin 
himself  was  well  aware.  What  was  it  that  de- 
termined the  number  of  superior  individuals  and 
special  adaptations,  what  was  the  determining 
factor  guaranteeing  the  presence  of  certain  in- 
dividual characters  in  every  case? 

This  point  has  been  the  object  of  incessant 
discussion,  and  the  end  of  it  is  not  yet.  We  might 
believe  that  the  life  methods  of  the  parents  them- 
selves might,  in  a  certain  way,  have  a  determin- 
ing effect  on  the  appearance  of  certain  characters 
among  different  people.  For  instance,  if  I  am 
a  passionate  ball  player  all  my  life,  is  it  possible 
that  there  may  be  at  least  one  of  my  children 
which  would  have  inherited  a  talent  for  ball 
playing?  The  explanation  of  the  problem  has 
been  attempted.  It  was  declared  that  exercise 
on  the  part  of  the  parents  would  always  serve 

156 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

to  pave  the  way  for  inclinations  of  the  children 
along  the  same  line.  The  logical  outcome  of 
this  argument  is  a  position  which  had  been  aimed 
at  long  before  Darwin  by  Lamarck.  In  the  last 
analysis,  the  selection  in  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence might  be  entirely  eliminated  so  far  as 
the  pure  intensification  of  hereditary  tendencies 
is  concerned,  and  all  specially  adapted  children 
could  be  considered  as  the  outcome  of  special 
characters  acquired  by  the  parents  through  spe- 
cial exercise.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  this 
explanation  does  not  explain  some  other  things 
and  is  not  satisfactory  to  us  in  a  good  many 
other  respects,  for  instance,  when  we  are  called 
upon  to  explain  how  exercise  should  be  able  to 
heighten  or  change  the  color  of  brown  rabbits, 
there  is  one  great  difficulty  which  is  not  met  by 
this  theory.  It  has  been  denied  that  characters 
acquired  by  the  parents  through  exercise  could 
ever  be  transmitted  to  offspring.  If  I  play  ball 
for  thirty  years  and  all  my  muscles  and  nerves 
are  perfectly  trained  for  that  purpose,  and  if  at 
the  end  of  that  time  I  propagate  my  kind,  it  is 
supposed  to  be  impossible  that  a  child  then  born 
should  be  more  predisposed  in  its  bodily  structure 
for  ball  playing  than  any  other  child.  August 
Weisman  carried  this  doubt  to  its  extreme.  It 


157 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

cannot  be  said  that  he  has  made  his  point.  But 
his  objections  have  at  least  demonstrated  that 
even  the  simplest  facts  are  at  present  very  hard 
to  present  and  explain.  In  another  direction, 
Hugo  de  Vries  has  attempted  to  show  that  the 
formation  of  varieties,  superior  types  and  talents, 
is  far  more  extensive  than  Darwin  ever  sus- 
pected, no  matter  what  their  cause  may  be.  De 
Vries  thinks  that  there  is  a  great  periodical  proc- 
ess of  formation  which  takes  place  side  by  side 
with  the  simple  and  minute  variations  of  the  off- 
spring of  any  species,  and  this  greater  process 
develops  an  enormous  number  of  new  forms. 
This  struggle  for  existence  then  selects  from 
this  large  number  those  of  less  value  for  the  time 
being  and  eliminates  them,  and  the  surviving 
species  will  appear  as  perfectly  new  ones.  This 
idea,  the  so-called  "Mutation/  Theory/  has  not 
been  sufficiently  explained,  although  it  is  doubt- 
less a  very  important  suggestion. 

The  opinions  of  the  scientists  are  still  divided 
on  such  points  as  these,  because  there  are  evi- 
dently still  many  logical  and  natural  possibilities 
which  affect  the  obscure  problem  suggested  by 
Darwin.  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  problems  of 
the  means  by  which  variations  are  brought  about 
are  of  the  highest  importance  for  the  descent  of 


158 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

man.  But  these  problems  run  parallel  to  the 
question  of  descent  which  we  have  discussed  in 
this  little  volume,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  wait 
for  an  explanation  of  those  ulterior  questions, 
nor  to  substantiate  the  claims  here  set  forth. 
In  regard  to  all  these  researches,  we  meet  at 
present  a  temporary  limit  to  our  perceptions  and 
understanding,  but  this  does  not  prevent  us  from 
enjoying  the  results  of  the  studies  which  we  have 
carried  to  success  within  the  present  field  of 
acquired  knowledge. 

The  question  of  the  descent  of  man  belongs  to 
one  of  the  fields  which  are  thoroughly  conquered 
by  science,  and  neither  complaints  nor  doubts 
can  alter  this  fact.  There  is  nothing  more  to  do 
but  to  meet  these  things  bravely.  Human  beings 
ever  remain  what  they  are.  No  one  can  rob 
them  of  their  nature.  All  our  ideals  likewise 
remain  undisturbed.  Whoever  feels  within  him- 
self the  force  of  a  deep  spiritual  life,  the  living 
breath  of  nature,  will  not  be  wrecked  by  the  fact 
that  his  ancestor  did  not  only  wear  a  rough  and 
hairy  animal  skin  as  a  protection  for  his  naked 
shoulders,  so  and  so  many  years  ago,  but  also  at 
a  certain  period  previous  to  that  wore  an  animal 
skin  grown  fast  to  his  own  body.  Poetry  did  not 
die  when  it  became  known  that  it  is  not  the  sun 

159 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

which  actually  rises  in  the  east,  but  the  earth 
which  revolves  toward  it.  Genuine  religious 
feeling  is  truly  something  very  human,  using 
these  terms  in  their  very  widest  and  sublimest 
meaning,  and  a  cold  fact  from  the  history  of  hu- 
man evolution  cannot  dampen  this  spirit.  It  is 
a  triumph  of  modern  human  powers  that  we  can 
resurrect  the  past  from  the  tombs  of  millions  of 
years.  That  is  what  makes  those  ancient  pic- 
tures so  inspiring.  But  we  should  not  be  worthy 
of  this  triumph  if  we  did  not  have  the  strength 
to  dominate  the  spirits  of  the  past  with  the  calm- 
ness of  a  master  who  can  look  at  them  serenely 
and  say :  "You  are  of  the  past  and  the  struggles 
of  the  past  belong  to  you ;  but  /  am,  and  above  me 
are  my  stars." 


THE   END 


160 


LATEST  BOOKS 

1905—1906. 

LIBRARY   OF   SCIENCE  FOR  THE 
WORKERS. 

This  new  series  of  the  latest  and  best  writings 
in  popular  science  in  simple  and  popular  style 
and  at  the  low  price  of  fifty  cents  a  volume,  has 
met  with  a  success  far  beyond  what  we  had 
counted  upon,  and  we  shall  without  doubt  make 
rapid  additions  to  this  library  in  the  near  future. 
Meanwhile  we  recommend  the  books  already  is- 
sued and  announced  as  indispensable  to  an 
understanding  of  the  latest  tendencies  in  modern 
science  for  those  who  have  not  the  leisure  for 
years  of  study. 

BOELSCHE,  Wilhelm.  The  Evolution  of 
Man.  Translated  by  Ernest  Untermann. 
Cloth,  50  cents. 

This  popular  work,  already  in  its  sixth  thou- 
sand, is  by  no  means  a  mere  summary  of  Dar- 
win's ''Descent  of  Man;"  it  is  rather  a  summary 
of  the  work  accomplished  by  a  whole  generation 
of  scientists  along  the  lines  opened  up  by  Darwin. 
He  was  too  genuine  a  man  of  science  to  claim 
that  a  theory  was  proved  before  the  proofs  were 
ready,  and  those  who  know  the  evolution  theory 
only  from  the  cheap  reprints  of  his  great  works 
are  sometimes  confused  by  the  noisy  claims  of 
theologians  to  the  effect  that  evolution  is  still  an 
unproved  theory.  This  little  book  gives  the  proof 
in  form  as  readable  as  it  is  convincing."  The 
"missing  links"  so  much  talked  of  a  generation 
ago  have  been  found,  and  their  pictures  are  in 
this  book. 


LATEST    BOOKS 

FRANCE,  R.  H.     Germs  of  Mind  in  Plants. 

Translated  by  A.   M.   Simons.     Cloth,   illus- 
trated, 50  cents. 

A  cardinal  point  in  the  philosophical  systems 
favored  by  the  ruling  classes  is  that  the  mind  of 
man  is  something  unique  in  the  universe,  gov- 
erned by  laws  of  its  own  that  have  no  particular 
connection  with  physical  laws.  Modern  science 
has  proved  that  not  only  animals,  but  also  plants, 
receive  impressions  from  the  outside  world  and 
use  the  data  thus  obtained  to  modify  their  move- 
ments for  their  own  advantage,  exactly  as  human 
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so  charming  and  entertaining  a  style  that  the 
reader  is  carried  along  and  does  not  realize  until 
later  the  revolutionary  significance  of  the  facts. 

MEYER,  DR.  M.  Wilhelm.    The  End  of  the 
World.     Translated  by   Margaret  Wagner. 
Cloth,  illustrated,  50  cents. 
This  book  answers  in  the  light  of  the  discov- 
eries of  modern  science  the  questions   frequently 
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this  planet.     Moreover,  it  goes  a  step  further  in 
making  clear  the  relations  of  man's   life  to  the 
universe  life.    We  have  already  seen  that  "mind" 
is  but  another  form  of  "life."     Dr.  Meyer  shows 
that  not  only  animals  and  plants  but  even  worlds 
and   suns    have    their    birth,     growth,     maturity, 
reproduction,  decay  and  death,  and  that  death  is 
but  the  preparation  for  a  new  cycle  of  life. 

UNTERMANN,  Ernest.     Science  and  Revolu- 
tion.    Cloth,  194  pages,  50  cents. 
A  history   of  the   evolution   of  the   theory   of 
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author  shows  how  the  ruling  classes,  living  on 
the  labor  of  others,  have  always  supported  some 
form  of  theolegy  or  mysticism,  while  the  working 
classes  have  developed  the  theory  of  evolution, 
which  is  rounded  out  to  its  logical  completion  by 
the  work  of  Marx,  Engels  and  Dietzgen.  The 
author  frankly  recognizes  that  no  writer  can 
avoid  being  influenced  by  his  class  environment, 
and  he  himself  speaks  distinctly  as  a  proletarian 
and  a  socialist.  "Science  and  Revolution"  is  an 
indispensable  book,  in  that  it  makes  clear  the  con- 
clusions drawn  by  socialists  from  the  facts  of 
science. 

Other  volumes  in  the  Library  of  Science  for 
the  Workers  will  be  published  in  the  near  future ; 
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"The  Making  of  the  World,"  by  Dr.  M.  Wilhelm 
Meyer,  and  two  volumes,  including  the  philo- 
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GLADYS,  Evelyn.     Thoughts   of  a  Fool.     A 

book   of   revolutionary   essays.     Extra   cloth, 
$1.00. 

A  book  which  is  clever  and  daring  to  a  degree 
is  "Thoughts  of  a  Fool,"  by  Evelyn  Gladys.  It 
abounds  in  paradoxes  and  scintillates  with  epi- 
grams, and  from  cover  to  cover  is  interesting. 
The  writer  is  a  cheerful  iconoclast  who  heartily 
enjoys  overthrowing  every  conventional  image 
in  sight,  but  back  of  her  energetic  tilts  against 
the  established  order  of  things  is  some  very  sound 
reasoning  and  a  singularly  healthy  point  of  view. 
The  reader  will  be  either  delighted  or  horribly 
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life  and  behavior,  but  if  he  once  begins  it  he  is 
likely  to  read  it  through.  Furthermore,  he  will 
not  be  apt  to  forget  it,  whether  he  agrees  with 
or  condemns  the  honest  and  fearless  assertions  of 
the  writer. — The  Craftsman. 

VAIL,  Rev.  Charles  H.    Principles  of  Scientific 
Socialism.     Paper,  237  pages,  35  cents. 

We  have  long  felt  the  need  of  a  book  which 
should  give,  within  reasonable  limits  of  space, 
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readers — a  book  which,  while  it  could  not  pre- 
tend to  cover  the  whole  field  in  all  its  details, 
should  set  the  main  outlines  of  the  subject  clearly 
before  the  reader  and  prepare  him  for  further 
study.  This  it  has  been  Mr.  Vail's  purpose  to  do. 
The  book  is  far  the  best  of  its  sort  yet  published. 
It  will  be  a  means  of  making  the  Socialist  position 
intelligible  to  very  many  who  do  not  yet  under- 
stand it;  and  many  of  our  comrades  will  do  well 
to  read  it  carefully,  in  order  to  gain  the  right 
point  of  view,  to  meet  common  objections  and  put 
their  arguments  into  a  form  that  will  appeal  to 
the  average  man  who  is  not  already  a  student  of 
economic  questions. — The  Worker. 

VAIL,   Rev.   Charles   H.     Modern     Socialism. 

Paper,  179  pages,  25  cents;  cloth,  75  cents. 

Scarcely  any  book  has  yet  been  presented  so 
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pression. It  is  worthy  the  perusal  of  any  one  in- 
terested in  the  social  question,  whether  the  per- 
son be  a  Socialist  or  not.  The  exhibition  of  the 
principles  of  Socialism  and  their  result  applied  to 
society  is  of  a  character  to  interest  the  opposer  as 


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well  as  the  supporter  of  the  theory.  Jt  comes 
with  the  unmistakable  evidences  of  careful  and 
systematic  preparation  and  is  full  of  knowledge 
for  the  student  and  interest  for  the  general 
reader.  It  has  been  unhesitatingly  recommended 
by  the  leaders  of  Socialist  thought  in  America, 
and  as  its  increasing  sales  indicate  has  in  it  the 
true  value  which  is  appropriated  by  all  students 
of  sociology.  The  book  is  well  printed  and  is 
indexed  in  a  convenient  manner  for  easy  refer- 
ence.— The  Class  Struggle. 

COLE,  Josephine  R.  (Compiled.)  Socialist 
Songs,  Dialogues  and  Recitations.  Paper, 
25  cents. 

This  book  is  issued  in  response  to  a  constant 
demand  for  something  suitable  to  be  used  in 
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is  a  wide  range  of  variety  in  the  selections,  but 
they  are  nearly  all  suited  to  the  comprehension  of 
children,  and  the  book  will  therefore  have  a  place 
of  its  own  in  the  literature  of  the  movement. 

SPARGO,  John.     Forces  That  Make  for  So- 
cialism in  America:    A  lecture  at  Cooper 
Union,  New  York  City.     Paper,  10  cents. 
This  recent  pamphlet  by  one  of  the  most  bril- 
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enjoy  reading,  while  it  is  also  an  unusually  effec- 
tive argument  to  put  into  the  hands  of  non-social- 
ists. 
SPARGO,    John.     A    Socialist  View  of    Mr. 

Rockefeller.    Paper,  5  cents. 
An  impartial  study  of  the  trust  magnate  in  the 
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represents  in  his  person,  so  to  say,  the  transition 
from  competitive  industry  to  monopoly.  He  per- 
sonifies in  a  remarkable  measure  the  greatest 
economic  problem  of  our  time." 

FERRI,   Prof.   Enrico    (of  the   University   of 
Palermo,  Italy.)     Science  and  Life.   Trans- 
lated by  Odon  For.     Paper,  5  cents. 
A  suggestive  and  inspiring  lecture  showing  the 
intimate  connection  between  the  socialist  philoso- 
phy  and   the    recent     developments    of    modern 
science. 


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tions is  London.  An  excellent  street  speech  by 
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God  and   My  Neighbor.     Cloth,   $1.00; 

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form  and  with  admirable  good  temper  the  numer- 
ous objections  to  popular  orthodox  theology,  and 
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BISHOP,  W.  H.    The  Garden  of  Eden,  U.  S. 

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A  Utopian  romance,  not  written  from  the  social- 
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BOELSCHE,    Wilhelm.    The    Evolution    of 

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Modern  socialism  is  closely  allied  to  the  modern 

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science,  they  become  socialists,  and  the  capitalists 
who  control  most  publishing  houses  naturally  do 
not  want  them  to  understand  it. 

"The  Evolution  of  Man"  tells  in  full  detail,  in  a 
clear,  simple  style,  illustrated  by  pictures,  just  how 
the  descent  of  man  can  be  traced  back  through 
monkeys,  marsupials,  amphibians,  fishes,  worms 
and  lower  forms  of  life,  down  to  the  animals  com- 
posed each  of  a  single  cell.  Moreover,  it  proves 
that  there  is  no  such  fixed  line  as  was  formerly 
thought  to  exist  between  the  organic  and  the  inor- 
ganic, but  that  the  same  life-force  molds  the  crys- 
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BRENHOLTZ,  Edwin  Arnold,    The  Record- 
ing Angel.    Cloth,  $1.00. 

An  intense,  dramatic  story  of  the  class  struggle 
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with  a  great  strike  by  the  workmen  of  the  steel 
trust.  The  president  of  the  trust  thinks  it  neces- 
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and  rotten-ripe  for  change."     It  has  a  plot  that 

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an  artistic  style  that  will  challenge  the  admiration 

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BROOME,  Isaac.    The  Last  Days  of  the  Rus- 

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Socialism  does  not  mean  withdrawing  from  the 

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class  struggle  and  trying  to  set  up  a  paradise  on  a 
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BROWN,  John.    Parasitic  Wealth;  Or,  Money 

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BROWN,  William  Thurston.  After  Capital- 
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The  Real  Religion  of  Today.     (Pocket 

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The  Axe  at  the  Root.     (Pocket  Library 

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CARPENTER,      Edward.      Civilization,     Its 

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way  to  any  new  truth.  Edward  Carpenter  has  the 
rare  merit  of  being  a  poet  and  man  of  science  in 
one.  He  faces  bravely  the  questions  that  prudes 
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CROSBY,  Ernest.  The  Land  of  the  Noonday 
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truth  about  the  real  causes  of  what  is  called  crime 
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EDMISTON,  Henry  M.  Rhymes  for  the 
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ENGELS,  Frederick.  The  Condition  of  the 
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est,  since  attempts  are  still  being  made  to  rein- 
troduce  dualist  notions  into  the  philosophy  of  so- 
cialism. Austin  Lewis  contributes  an  interest- 
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This  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  author's 
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lation appeared  in  1502.  It  contains  practically 
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folly  of  the  popular  idea  that  wealth  and  poverty 
always  have  existed  and  so  may  always  be  ex- 
pected to  continue. 

Socialism,      Utopian      and      Scientific. 

Translated    by    Edward    Aveling.      D.  Sc. 
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FEARING,  Blanche.  Roberta,  A  Novel  of  Chi- 
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The  author  is  not  a  socialist,  but  the  story  is  a 
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FLINT,  Sam.    On  the  Road  to  the  Lake.    A 

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the  actual  ethics  of  capitalism.  It  is  illustrated 
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FRANKLIN,   Charles   Kendall.    The  Sociali- 
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The  Craftsman  says :    "The  volume  abounds  in 
definitions  making  it  extremely  easy  to  follow  the 
thought.  However  one  may  look  upon  its  conclu- 
sions, it  must  be  admitted  that  they  are  logical 
and  fearlessly  reached."     The  Boston  Transcript 
says :     "This  is  the  first  materialism  which  has 
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able power,  and  applied  it  to  the  welfare  of  the 
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ics' is  a  valuable  addition  to  modern  thought.  As 
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cialist he  is  philosophical.    It  is  the  first  time  phi- 
losophy and  socialism  have  joined  hands." 

GENONE,  Hudor.    The  Last  Tenet  Imposed 
Upon  the  Khan  of  Thomatoz.    Cloth,  $1.00. 
A  remarkably  clever  and  laughable  story  satir- 
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GOODE,  James  Bryan.    The  Modern  Banker. 

Paper,  25  cents. 

This  is  an  entertaining  novel,  written  by  a  Mis- 
souri man  in  1896,  which  has  a  distinct  historical 

15 


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value  in  showing  the  way  in  which  the  small  farm- 
ers and  traders  at  that  time  regarded  the  bankers. 

GORDON,  F.  G.  R.    Government  Ownership 

of  Railways.    Paper,  5  cents. 
HALPHIDE,  Dr.  A.  C.    Mind  and  Body:  Sug- 
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cine and  Education.    Cloth,  $1.00. 

The  Psychic  and  Psychism.  Cloth,  $1.00. 

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evolutionary  point  of  view  on  subjects  that  in 
most  popular  treatises  are  buried  under  a 
cheap  mysticism.  "Mind  and  Body"  gives  a 
clearer  explanation  of  the  process  of  "hyp- 
notizing" than  the  courses  of  instruction  for 
which  large  sums  are  charged,  and  "The 
Psychic  and  Psychism"  tells  of  the  phenomena 
of  mind-reading,  clairvoyance  and  telepathy. 

HANCOCK,  Anson  Uriel.    John  Auburntop, 
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HANSEN,  George  P.    The  Legend  of  Hamlet. 

Cloth,  50  cents. 
A  historical  study  of  the  original  sources  from 

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HERRON,  George  D.    The  Day  of  Judgment. 

Paper,  10  cents. 
Why  I  am  a  Socialist.     (Pocket  Library 

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HILL,  Thomas  E.    Money  Found.    Leather, 

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16 


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tains,  however,  much  condensed  information 
of  value,  and  some  instructve  suggestions  as  to 
possible  banking  methods  for  the  period  of 
transition  from  capitalism  to  collectivism. 

HINDS,  William  Alfred,  Ph.  B.  American 
Communities.  Revised  edition,  enlarged 
to  include  additional  societies,  new  and  old, 
communistic,  semi-communistic  and  co-op- 
erative. Cloth,  $1.00. 

HITCHCOCK,  Charles  C.    Objectors  to  So- 
cialism Answered.     Paper,  5  cents. 
INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 
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INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW, 
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A  bound  volume  of  the  International  Social- 
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17 


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and  a  complete  set  of  the  Review  is  simply  in- 
dispensable to  any  one  seeking  a  thorough 
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JOHNSON,,  Samuel.  Theodore  Parker,  a  Lec- 
ture.    Cloth,  $1.00. 
JUSTICE,  Alfred  R.    An  Equitable  Exchange 

System.  Cloth,  40  cents. 
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Overproduction,  Money  and  Value  are  among 
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ner. 

KAUTSKY,    Karl.    The     Social    Revolution. 

Translated  by  A.  M.  and  May  Wood  Si- 
mons. (Standard  Socialist  Series,  No.  6.) 
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Kautsky  is  the  editor  of  the  Neue  Zeit,  and  is 
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book  is  in  two  parts.  Part  I,  Reform  and  Rev- 
olution, explains  the  essential  difference  be- 
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ties. Part  II,  The  Day  After  the  Revolution, 
gives  straightforward  answers  to  the  questions 
so  often  asked  about  what  the  socialists  would 
do  if  entrusted  with  the  powers  of  government. 

Frederick  Engels,  His  Life,  His  Work 

and  His  Writings.  Translated  by  May 
Wood  Simons.  Paper,  10  cents. 

18 


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KERR,    Charles    H.    Morals    and    Socialism. 

(Pocket  Library  of  Socialism,  No.  10.)  Pa- 
per, 5  cents. 

The  Folly  of  Being  "Good."    (Pocket 

Library   of   Socialism    No.   25.)     Paper,   5 
cents. 

• (compiler)   Socialist  Songs  with  Music. 

Paper,  20  cents. 

This  is  the  only  collection  of  songs  with 
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represents  the  spirit  of  the  international  so- 
cialist movement.  It  contains  thirty-six  songs, 
many  of  them  set  to  familiar  music,  and  it  is 
the  book  that  is  actually  used  in  the  meetings 
of  the  socialist  locals. 

Socialist  Songs.    (Pocket  Library  of  So- 
cialism, No.  11.)     Paper,  5  cents. 
This  book  contains  the  words  of  all  but  the 
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the    two    can   be    used    together    at    meetings 
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music  is  not  available. 

KELLEY,     J.     W.    Industrial     Democracy. 

(Pocket    Library    of    Socialism,    No.    32.) 

Paper,  5  cents. 
KING,    Murray    E.    Socialism    and    Human 

Nature;    Do    They    Conflict?    Paper,    10 

cents. 
KJELLAND,  Alexander.    Elsie,  a  Christmas 

Story.     Boards,  50  cents. 
KROPOTKIN,    Peter.    An    Appeal    to    the 

Young.     (Pocket     Library     of     Socialism, 

No.  36.)     5  cents. 

19 


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LABRIOLA,  Antonio.  Essays  on  the  Ma- 
terialistic Conception  of  History.  Trans- 
lated by  Charles  H.  Kerr.  Cloth,  $1.00. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  socialism,  an 
understanding  of  which  is  absolutely  essential 
to  clear  thinking,  is  the  theory  of  historical  ma- 
terialism, or  the  materialistic  conception  of  his- 
tory. The  theory  is  briefly  outlined  in  the 
introduction  to  the  Communist  Manifesto  and 
in  Engels'  Socialism  Utopian  and  Scientific, 
but  it  is  first  adequately  developed  in  this  work 
of  Labriola. 

LADOFF,  Isador.    American  Pauperism  and 
the  Abolition  of  Poverty.     (Standard  So- 
cialist Series,  No.  9.)     Cloth,  50  cents. 
A   study  of  the  last  United   States   census, 
bringing  out  in  bold  relief  the  social  contrasts 
that  are  purposely  left  obscure  in  the  official 
documents.     An  arsenal  of  facts  for  socialist 
writers  and  speakers. 

The   Passing   of   Capitalism.    Cloth,   50 

cents. 

LAFARGUE,  Paul.  The  Evolution  of  Prop- 
erty from  Savagery  to  Civilization.  Cloth, 
$1.00. 

The  Sale  of  an  Appetite.    Translated  by 

Charles  H.   Kerr;   Illustrated  by  Dorothy 
Deene.     Cloth,  50  cents. 
A   striking  and  original   story  of  a  hungry 
man  who  sold  his  appetite  to  a  capitalist,  and 
afterwards   regretted  his   bargain.     It  has   an 
obvious  moral  for  the  laborers  who  have  to  live 
by  selling  their  various  functions  of  body  and 
mind. 

20 


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Socialism  and  the  Intellectuals.    Trans- 
lated by  Charles  H.  Kerr.     Paper,  5  cents. 
LEFFINGWELL,   W.   H.    Easy   Lessons   in 
Socialism.     (Pocket  Library  of  Socialism, 
No.  38.)     Paper,  5  cents. 
LEWIS,  Eugene  C.    A  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Tariff.     Cloth,  75  cents. 
LIEBKNECHT,  Wilhelm.    Biographical  Me- 
moirs of  Karl  Marx.  Translated  by  Ernest 
Untermann.     (Standard     Socialist     Series, 
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This  personal  biography  of  Marx,  by  an  inti- 
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into  the  beginnings  of  socialism.  Moreover  it 
is  a  charming  book,  as  interesting  as  a  novel, 
and  will  make  an  admirable  introduction  to 
heavier  reading  on  socialism. 

Socialism,  What  It  Is  and  What  It  Seeks 

to  Accomplish.     Translated  by  May  Wood 
Simons.     Paper,  10  cents. 

No  Compromise,  No  Political  Trading. 

Translated  by  A.  M.  Simons  and  Marcus 
Hitch.     Paper,  10  cents. 

LONDON,    Jack.      The    Scab.     (Pocket    Lis 
brary   of    Socialism,    No.    44.)     Paper,    5 
cents. 
LORI  A,  Achilla.    The  Economic  Foundations 

of  Society.     Cloth,  $1.25. 

LYNCH,  Daniel,  and  HAYES,  Max  S.  So- 
cialism and  Trade  Unionism.  (Pocket  Li- 
brary of  Socialism,  No.  17.)  Paper,  5 
cents. 

21 


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"MABEL."    A    Soul's    Love    Letter.    Cloth, 

$1.00. 

The  Boston  Transcript  says:  "There  is  a 
striking  and  compelling  quality  about  the  writ- 
ing of  this  unknown  author  which  leads  the 
reader  to  finish  her  book  at  a  sitting.  Prob- 
ably it  is  the  transparent  truth  and  candor  of 
the  narration  that  hold  the  attention  so  mas- 

tierfully Perhaps    its    very    charm 

lies  in  the  unconventional  freedom  with  which 
the  mixed  motives  permeating  every  human  ac- 
tion are  confessed." 
MACHINIST,    A    Black-listed.    Capital    and 

Labor.    Paper,  25  cents. 

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class  through  the  Socialist  party. 
MACKAY,  H.  W.  Boyd.    A  Sketch  of  Social 
Evolution.     (Pocket  Library  of  Socialism, 
No.  30.)     Paper,  5  cents. 

MARSHALL,   Perry.    Launching   and  Land- 
ing.    (Poems.)     Cloth,   $1.00. 
MARTIN,  Kate  Byam,  and  HENROTIN,  El- 
len  M.    The   Social   Status   of  European 
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The  two  essays  included  in  this  volume  were 
written  in   1886,  and   are  from  the  bourgeois 
point  of  view. 

MARX,  Karl.  Capital:  A  Critical  Analysis 
of  Capitalist  Production.  Translated  from 
the  third  German  edition  by  Samuel  Moore 
and  Edward  Aveling,  and  edited  by  Fred- 
erick Engels.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

22 


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This  is  the  standard  English  edition,  the 
proofs  of  which  were  corrected  by  Frederick 
Engels,  and  it  is  absolutely  complete  in  so  far 
as  the  work  of  Marx  has  been  translated  into 
English.  It  contains,  however,  only  the  matter 
included  in  the  first  of  the  four  German  vol- 
umes. Ernest  Untermann  is  now  engaged  in 
translating  the  remaining  volumes,  and  we 
hope  to  publish  them  in  1907. 

Nothing  need  be  said  regarding  the  impor- 
tance of  this  work  of  Marx.  It  is  simply  indis- 
pensable to  any  student  desirng  to  master  the 
economic  side  of  the  socialist  philosophy. 

Revolution  and  Counter-Revolution,  or 
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Wage-Labor  and  Capital.    (Pocket  Li- 
brary   of     Socialism,     No.     7.)      Paper,    5 
cents. 

MARX,  Karl,  and  ENGELS,  Frederick.  Man- 
ifesto of  the  Communist  Party.  Cloth,  SO 
cents;  paper,  10  cents. 

This  manifesto,  first  published  in  1848,  is  still 
recognized  the  world  over  as  the  clearest  state- 
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cialist party.  It  has  been  translated  into  the 
language  of  every  country  where  capitalism  ex- 
ists, and  it  is  being  circulated  more  rapidly  to- 
day than  ever  before. 

MASSART,  Jean,  and  VANDERVELDE, 
Emile.  Parasitism,  Organic  and  Social. 
Cloth,  $1.00. 

MATTHEW'S  Gospel  in  Greek,  with  Voca- 
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MAYNARD,  Mila  Tupper.  Walt  Whitman, 
the  Poet  of  the  Wider  Selfhood.  Cloth, 
$1.00. 

Contents:  A  Glimpse  of  the  Man;  the  Copi- 
ous Personal  Self;  the  Cosmic  Self;  the  Eter- 
nal Self;  "Even  These  Least";  the  Larger  Wo- 
man; the  Larger  Man;  Youth,  Maturity,  Age; 
Unity  with  Nature;  Democracy;  America; 
Comradeship.  This  book  is  a  valuable  intro- 
duction and  companion  to  Whitman's  Poems. 

MILLS,  Walter  Thomas.    Evolutionary  Poli- 
tics.    Cloth,  $1.00. 
How  to  Work  for   Socialism.     (Pocket 

Library   of  Socialism,   No.  22.)      Paper,  5 

cents. 
MILLER,   George   McA.     Uncle   Ike's   Idees. 

(Dialect  verses  on  social  topics.)     Paper, 

10  cents. 
MORMAN,   James   Bale.    The    Principles   of 

Social  Progress.    A  Study  of  Civilization. 

Cloth,  50  cents. 
MORRIS,  William,  and  BAX,  Ernest  Belfort. 

Socialism,     Its     Growth     and     Outcome. 

Cloth,  $1.25. 
NEWSPAPER    Man,    A.    Man     or     Dollar, 

Which?  A  Novel.  Paper,  25  cents. 
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ciety in  the  form  of  a  story.  It  contains  much 
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24 


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vate  affairs  on  the  part  o(  society  which  is 
quite  in  contradiction  with  the  program  of  so- 
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NOYES,  William  H.  The  Evolution  of  the 
Class  Struggle.  (Pocket  Library  of  So- 
cialism, No.  2.)  Paper,  5  cents. 

PARKYN,  Herbert  A.,  M.  D.  Hypnotism  as 
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cents. 

PARSONS,  Frank.    The  Drift  of  Our  Time. 

Paper,  10  cents. 

PERSINGER,  Clark  Edmund.  Letters  from 
New  America;  or,  An  Attempt  at  Practical 
Socialism.  Cloth,  50  cents;  paper,  25 
cents. 

PLATO.  The  Republic.  Translated  by  Al- 
exander Kerr.  Books  I,  II,  II  and  IV. 
now  ready;  others  in  preparation.  Each 
book  sold  separately.  Paper,  15  cents;  the 
set,  60  cents. 

The  Republic  of  Plato,  written  in  the  fourth 
century  before  the  Christian  era,  is  the  first  and 
the  greatest  of  the  many  attempts  to  make  so- 
ciety over  on  an  ideal  basis.  In  Plato's  work 
most  of  the  so-called  original  ideas  of  modern 
reformers  can  be  found,  far  more  artistically 
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in  which  the  leading  part  is  taken  by  Socrates. 
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25 


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PLUMMER,  Frank  Everett.    Gracia,  a  Social 
Tragedy.     Cloth,  gilt  top,  illustrated  with 
twelve  half-tone  engravings,  $1.25. 
A  story  in  blank  verse,  dramatic  and  intense. 

Has  run  through  three  editions  and  is  still  in 

active  demand. 

Was  It  Gracia's  Fault?     Paper,  10  cents- 

A  booklet  summarizing  the  plot  of  "Gracia," 
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cial questions  involved.  The  closing  pages  are 
by  Charles  H.  Kerr,  and  set  forth  the  socialist 
view. 

POOLE,     Ernest.     Katharine     Breshkovsky: 

For  Russia's  Freedom.    Paper,  10  cents. 
A  graphic  and  thrilling    account  of    Madame 
Breshkovsky's  personal  experiences  in  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  of  Russia. 

QUINN,  C.  F.    Under  the  Lash.    A  Drama. 

Paper,  25  cents. 

This  play  is  adapted  to  the  use  of  amateurs, 
and  has  been  successfully  put  on  the  stage  in 
Chicago.  It  deals  with  a  strike  of  coal  miners. 

RAYMOND,  Walter  Marion.  Rebels  of  the 
New  South.  A  Novel,  with  illustrations 
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With  Whitman-like  disregard  for  convention- 
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artificial,  and  the  story  is  about  souls — human 
souls  that  appeal  irresistably  to  the  democratic 
spirit.  Every  literature-loving  socialist  will  like 
it. — Appeal  to  Reason. 

There  is  a  delicious  Southern  flavor  throughout 
the  story.  It  is  a  socialist  book,  though  it  has 

26 


CATALOGUE  OF  BOOKS 

little  to  say  about  socialism  directly.  It  is  the 
spirit,  the  atmosphere  of  the  book,  the  feeling 
that  if  such  people  are  socialists  the  cause  must 
be  divine — which  makes  it  a  power  against  the 
most  despicable  slanders  ever  uttered  against  so- 
cialism.— The  Christian  Socialist. 

REED,  Dr.  C.  H.    Civic  Evils:  An  Analysis 

of  Civilization's  Problem.   (Pocket  Library 

of  Socialism,  No.  42.)     Paper,  5  cents. 
RICHARDS,     Lydia     Platt.    Ahead     of    the 

Hounds;  a  Novel.     Cloth,  $1.00;  paper,  50 

cents. 

ROBERTS,  Evelyn  Harvey.  The  Pure  Cause- 
way.    Cloth,  $1.00;  paper,  50  cents. 
ROBERTUS,      Karl.    Over-Production     and 

Crises.     Cloth,  $1.00. 
ROGERS,    James    E.    Thorold.    Work    and 

Wages.     Cloth,  $1.00. 
ROSENBERG,  Louis  J.  Mazzini,  a  Prophet  of 

the    Religion    of    Humanity.       Cloth,    50 

cents. 

A  biographical  sketch,  with  which  are  printed 
Mazzini's  oration  "To  the  Young  Men.  of 
Italy"  and  a  bibliography  of  his  chief  writings. 
SCHAEFFLE,  Dr.  A.  The  Quintessence  of 

Socialism.    Cloth,  $1.00. 
SHELDON,   Rev.   Stuart.    The   Root   of   All 

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SIMONS,    A.    M.    The    American    Farmer. 

(Standard  Socialist  Series,  No.  3.)     Cloth, 

50  cents. 
"The  American  Farmer,"  in  spite  of  its  small 

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size,  is  the  largest  contribution  yet  given  to  the 
agrarian  literature  of  this  country.  The  author, 
besides  being  a  student  of  American  social  condi- 
tions, is  thoroughly  conversant  with  practical 
farming,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  farmer 
who  reads  the  work  will  have  to  admit  that  the 
conclusions  are  based  on  a  real  understanding  of 
the  difficulties  of  his  struggle  with  the  soil,  with 
railroads,  trusts  and  foreign  competitors, — Chi- 
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